An increasingly challenging and vital concern for law firms, alongside almost all other professionals, is the proper use of email in a corporate environment. Whether it be sending inappropriate jokes, sending emails to the wrong recipients, or simply email etiquette, the consequences of acting incorrectly with email can be severe for individuals or firms alike.

The OCC recently released its new email@risk course to help professionals manage and mitigate the risks associated with the world of cyberspace. The course fulfils an important function in this regard and acts as a crucial reminder of how small mistakes can cause big headaches.

Part of the OCC’s ongoing service to its members is its commitment to provide regular updates and changes to its online courses as are deemed necessary.

Since the EU Third Directive concerning anti-money laundering and terrorist financing came into effect on 15th December 2007, a number of OCC firms determined that changes to the OCC Anti-Money Laundering course material were necessary to reflect the highest possible level of regulatory compliance with the new regulations. The AML 2010 update, which was released to all subscribing firms, is the latest in the regular updates applied to all OCC AML Courses.

The OCC’s previous 2 hour risk management course has now been given a makeover to meet the request of a number of OCC members. The OCC recreated the risk management course in the form of four shorter 30 minute courses.

The new Introduction to Risk Management gives an overview of what risk management is and provides some insight into how basic risk management practices can be implemented into everyday actions. It has been suggested that this course is appropriate for support staff who perhaps do not require an in-depth study of risk management in the legal arena.

The new risk management short courses are accredited for CPD points and are now available for everyone from sole practitioners to multinational firms.

Another exciting development for the Online Compliance Consortium is a brand new version of the Anti-Money Laundering course for personal injury (PI) lawyers. Irwin Mitchell, a national leader in the area of personal injury, spearheaded the OCC initiative to create this new version of the AML course. Irwin Mitchell have worked with the OCC to assemble a group of law firms or lawyers with specialty in personal injury. The new Personal Injury Core Group will develop a new version of the OCC Anti-Money Laundering course to be added to the existing AML suite.

VinciWorks, e-learning provider of OCC online courses, has been providing CPD accredited courses to lawyers in Hong Kong since 2002. Recently, the Hong Kong Law Society announced that from 1st July 2008, mandatory requirements to implement anti-money laundering processes and procedures would be implemented. The OCC developed a Hong Kong Core Group to address the new regulations. 12 leading firms constituting this group developed and released new online AML courses allowing Hong Kong firms to immediately and efficiently comply with the mandatory training obligations.

The highly anticipated courses now allow Hong Kong lawyers, to efficiently, quickly and cost effectively complete the necessary training in their own time, online.

The Swedish Law Society, in accordance with other regulatory authorities around the world, announced that it would implement new regulations concerning mandatory training in anti-money laundering and compliance. Mannheimer Swartling, the largest law firm in Sweden, collaborated with Vinge, Hammarskiöld & Co, the OCC and e-learning developer VinciWorks, to form a group of leading Swedish firms to replicate the successful Core Group model in Sweden.

The Swedish Core Group has now successfully developed a jurisdictionally appropriate training courses for lawyers throughout Sweden. The process of offering this new course to Sweden’s other leading firms is now underway.

In response to numerous demands from OCC firms, the summer of 2010 has been targeted for the completion and release of a new custom developed Legal Learning Management System. OCC firms will have the option to:

• Integrate the LLMS with the firm's own HR Directory/Practice Management Systems
• Create and manage teams or groups of users
• Manage classroom training
• Track multinational CPD/CLE points and requirements
• Customise the interface to display specific data
• Accommodate and deploy SCORM courses
• Customise email templates and reports