About PLTG
PLTG Mission Statement
The PLTG is an organization of legal application trainers from law firms and consulting agencies in the metropolitan New York area. PLTG is dedicated to exchanging cutting-edge information, ideas, and experiences to provide support to, and improve the performance of, the legal training community.
Bylaws
in Adobe Acrobat format.
The History of the PLTG
Over a decade ago, encouraged by his supervisor and driven
by a hunch that others in the legal community had the same
need, legal application trainer Dennis Holly acted
on a vision of a support group for legal technology trainers.
At a time when the pace of changing technology was rapidly
increasing, trainers found their roles becoming more complex.
Dennis believed that gathering together people of similar
backgrounds and needs would produce a forum to discuss
how other trainers in law firms were handling the demands
of training lawyers, secretaries, and staff in the core
applications of a law firm.
In October 1991, Dennis founded the Professional
Legal Trainers Group—which is often referred to as simply PLTG.
At the first meeting of this group, Dennis met with 14 other
law firm trainers for a discussion and planning luncheon.
At that time, Dennis was a WordPerfect 5.1 trainer at Whitman & Ransom
(now Winston
& Strawn). The founding members of the PLTG instantly
saw the value of discussing their roles and exchanging methodologies
for training—and decided to continue meeting on a monthly
basis.
Over the next several years, Dennis guided the activities
of the group as he watched it steadily grow beyond the initial
14 member firms. Member firms would take turns hosting the
burgeoning organization. Most meetings in the early years
were luncheons. The group produced by-laws, formed a steering
committee comprised of the group’s officers, and established
a series of monthly meetings and annual events that helped
attract and nurture the membership.
Today the PLTG boasts a membership of over 150 individuals,
representing law firms and legal departments and technology
training/support vendors in the tri-state area. Members include
trainers, training consultants and training/support managers,
as well as other individuals from information technology departments
in metropolitan area law firms. Every second Friday of each
month (except for August), members meet at a breakfast meeting
to address a wide range of topics facing the legal training
and support industry. A planning meeting is held in January
to ensure that meetings will address current topics of interest
to members for the year.
In this forum, members share technical and strategic information
about new technologies, software and training. Vendors and
speakers make presentations at the host law firm or meeting
place, and panels or roundtable discussions of migrations,
training programs, and the latest technical innovations are
scheduled throughout the year. The group’s steering
committee meets monthly and is responsible for maintaining
the group’s focus and direction.
The original focus of the group continues to be the thrust of the PLTG
today:
- A forum for trainers and vendors to share information
about the fast-changing legal environment.
- A support group for the constantly changing trainer’s
role and the law firm’s expectations for meeting new
requirements for training and support.
- An open exchange where members share best practices as
well as war stories.
- An opportunity to share the many features of a variety
of software applications used in the legal community.
¼¯li> - Focused presentations from guest speakers, panels, and
vendors on training-related topics and products.
- An annual IS Directors' panel discussion.