To reduce risk and improve the consistency of email use, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer joined forces with compliance education company Fuel to design a bespoke email best practice course for its lawyers.

With more than 2,400 fee earners in 18 jurisdictions, Freshfields sends and receives more than 1.75 million emails in a typical month.

Although the firm has not experienced serious negative repercussions from careless or inappropriate email use, Freshfields wanted to lead by example by implementing a consistent approach to email communication across the firm.

James Wood, corporate partner, explains: "There has been a dramatic explosion in the use of email – very few of our staff regularly use fax or write letters now. But no-one has ever stopped and thought about the best way to use email for communication, its limitations as a communication tool, some of the risk elements and so on.

"People need to stop and think before they press the 'send' button," he adds. "That applies to everything – to the length of the email to your client, to whether you should be sending it at all. Every time one of our team sends an email they should be asking themselves: is it sensible for me to be sending this?"

With this in mind, in June last year Freshfields contacted Fuel to develop a course that conveyed the importance of email best practice in a way that would generate maximum impact and retention for a diverse audience of lawyers around the world.

As part of the project, the Freshfields email advisory group developed a set of guidelines that staff should adhere to when communicating by email. These points, along with an understanding of the risks involved in poor email practices, needed to be communicated to all lawyers regardless of their seniority, department or location.

The key challenge of the project was to develop a piece of learning that would relate to such a large number of people spread over a wide geographical area.

A further consideration was the competing demands on the fee earners' time. They are extremely busy, so the course had to generate sufficient impact to ensure it would warrant – and keep – the lawyers' full attention. It also had to be delivered as quickly as possible.

Fuel worked with Freshfields to design a creative online education course relating to the firm's email guidelines. Time and thought was given to ensure the approach was entertaining without being frivolous.

By using a recognisable theme as a framework for the course, the learning is immediately engaging. Fuel then applied its understanding of educational psychology to communicate the key messages in a way that was entertaining, informative and, most importantly, easy to retain.

Mindful of the limited time available for this form of training, Fuel designed the course so it was delivered in five weekly modules between February and March this year, with each module lasting between five and 10 minutes. This enabled lawyers to access the training around their client work without taking too much time in one sitting.

To create impact and encourage participation, the online course featured cameo appearances from various partners and members of the firm's risk committee. The course, which was endorsed by the firm's risk committee, was also designed to directly relate to the fee earners' working practices.

David Fitch, head of knowledge management systems and projects at Fresh-fields, says: "Fuel worked closely with us throughout the project. It was a difficult brief to create a course that would resonate with lawyers internationally. The commitment Fuel had to making it work really helped us to see it through."

As a result of the course, Freshfields was able to give its email guidelines the importance and impact required. Fuel's imaginative approach to delivering consistent and clear messages helped to raise awareness of the importance of email best practice and reduce the risk of careless use.

Accessing the course via the corporate intranet allowed the firm to reach a wide number of fee earners, regardless of where in the world they were based, while the email guidelines were published in 11 languages. This also helped the firm achieve up to an 85% completion rates on the modules. High-quality, media-rich graphics turned the essentially dry guidelines into a memorable experience. The creativity and unusual approach also prompted conversation around the offices bringing even greater awareness to the issues raised.

More than 2,000 staff took part in the training. Although the course was primarily aimed at fee earners, members of the various business services teams were also given access.

The programme was cost-effective, with the investment providing ongoing benefit as all new joiners will take the course as part of their induction.

Commenting on the success of the email best practice project, Fitch concludes: "This has been a successful project for the firm in that we have succeeded in raising awareness about email usage and we have successfully tested the concept of online education. We are already working with Fuel on a second programme."

Steve Dineen is chief executive and co-founder of Fuel.