When Akin, a multinational law firm, set out to elevate training for its business services professionals, it faced a challenge familiar to many firms: existing compliance and skills training tools felt generic and out of sync with the law firm environment. An initiative to find a law firm-specific resource was launched, ultimately leading to the selection of SkillBurst. What began as an improvement to compliance training has quickly expanded into a broader learning and development strategy rooted in practical application, industry fit, and values alignment. Today, over 50 SkillBurst modules are used for onboarding, early-career training, and management development, creating a stronger connection between skills learning and firm needs.
Bill Cocolis, Director of Talent Management, at Akin, a law firm with offices nationwide and around the world, leads the talent management discipline for its 700+ business services professionals, including HR, IT, marketing, legal secretaries, and paralegals.
His mission is to bring strategy and structure to the career training and development experience, from onboarding to talent reviews to career development. When Cocolis was asked recently to evaluate the firm’s digital training and learning resources, he recognized the need for change.
Cocolis and his Akin colleagues wanted meaningful development tools that more closely reflected the firm’s culture, supported career growth, and respected employees’ time. SkillBurst was selected.
Cocolis said the difference in digital training was noticeable immediately. SkillBurst’s compliance modules felt tailored, modern, and more appropriate for the audience.
“Partners were calling to say it was a significant improvement,” said Cocolis. “They became internal champions. That gave us the license to expand and move forward with other SkillBurst modules.”
Today, Akin uses SkillBurst across disciplines, empowering business services professionals at all levels with practical, on-demand learning.
“SkillBurst has provided a more engaging way to meet people where they are,” said Cocolis. “It speaks the language of law firms, while also emphasizing universal skills like communication, leadership, and accountability.”
Building a Learning Ecosystem
Akin has also integrated SkillBurst content into broader career pathways, including new hire onboarding and a growing library of curated learning collections inside the firm’s Learning Management System. Complete with Akin branding, SkillBurst’s concise modules are tailored for the firm and designed for flexible learning.
“Most SkillBurst modules are 15 to 20 minutes,” said Cocolis. “They can be used to help facilitate live sessions and discussions, or managers can assign them for self-study and learning. Either way, we’re having more dynamic conversations around the topics that matter most to us.” Cocolis said SkillBurst modules support Akin’s custom-designed and facilitated Manager Academy.
“This program provides managers with the foundational skills to be successful at producing meaningful results through others to meet the firm’s needs and help people develop in their careers,” said Cocolis. “The SkillBurst Management and Emerging Leaders series, among others, complements this learning by providing additional context and steps for practical application.” Advancing new hires and early-career professionals has become easier and more effective. One growing use case is for early career professionals entering the legal world for the first time.
“A lot of our new hires need to learn how to communicate in a professional services environment,” said Cocolis. “SkillBurst gives them that foundation.” The team is also aligning SkillBurst modules to career progression tracks.
Momentum + Measurable Uptake
Since the rollout of SkillBurst, usage has steadily increased.
“We’ve seen an increase in course participation,” said Cocolis. “Not just because we’ve raised internal awareness, but because we are embedding it into career progression plans, and we’re not just assigning courses, we’re using them as part of planning conversations, career pathways, and team goals. They’ve become tools, not just training.”
The feedback from employees has been both encouraging and practical. One manager said the series helped him improve delegation skills. Another said it reminded her of how to drive meaningful results by getting to know the firm and practicing core competencies more effectively.
For a firm focused on professional excellence, that matters. With over 50 modules in active use and growing engagement across departments, Cocolis sees SkillBurst as more than a vendor but a partner in cultivating continuous learning, positive morale, and better teamwork.
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