Play-Based Learning: Can simulation games help lawyers learn management and business development skills?

A law firm growth simulation game is designed to help lawyers learn how law firms operate as complex businesses. Participants work in competing teams and take on roles such as managing partner and chief financial officer over one financial year. The simulation includes an imaginary client base with revenue records and profit and loss statements. The in-person experience runs through five rounds, each presenting real-world scenarios that require decisions and produce consequences. Progress is measured through cash flow plus four additional dimensions: people and culture, client trust, market position, and risk and governance. A purpose-built technology platform delivers realistic communications such as WhatsApp messages and informational memos. The game takes about four hours to complete.

"Developed over 12 months of research with general counsel, business development leaders and law firm executives, The Law Firm Growth Game places associates, partners and business services professionals into the role of running a law firm over the course of one financial year. Working in competing teams, participants are faced with real-world scenarios that law firms encounter every day, Koenen-Geerdink said in an interview."

"The imaginary law firm includes a client base with revenue records and profit and loss statements. The in-person simulation has five rounds, each with its own scenario. Each decision has consequences, with progress measured not just by cash flow but in four other dimensions-people and culture, client trust, market position and risk and governance."

"Players on each team select their roles-such as managing partner and chief financial officer-giving both associates and partners a chance to experience the view from the C-suite. Koenen-Geerdink says the game, which has a purpose-built technology platform, is "very realistic"-players will see WhatsApp messages pop up on their phones and get informational memos."

""Law firms have evolved into highly complex businesses, but the way we develop lawyers has not kept pace," says Koenen-Geerdink, whose firm is headquartered in Dubai and has additional offices in Amsterdam and Toronto. "You can't learn the business of law from a slide deck. People learn when they are placed in situations that feel real, where they have to make decisions and live with the consequences.""

Read at ABA Journal