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Explore How WSBA Simplified Content Delivery for Legal Professionals
The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) is the organization designated by the Washington Supreme Court to license and regulate the state’s nearly 36,000 attorneys and other licensed legal professionals. One of WSBA’s priorities is to ensure competent and qualified legal professionals, and one way they do this is by providing legal education and tools that support legal professionals throughout their careers.
Lawyers licensed to practice in Washington are required to take a certain number of Continuing Legal Education credits every three years. Currently, half of these credits must be fulfilled attending live classroom seminars or participating in live webcasts, and the other half can be met watching on-demand programming.
WSBA’s members are licensed lawyers in the state of Washington but live and work all over the world, with 18 percent of the members not living within the state. Since WSBA offices are based in downtown Seattle, it isn’t realistic to think everyone can attend a live seminar or class at that location. To ensure WSBA members have access to the education they need WSBA has developed an integrated multimedia strategy that leverages the power of an online video solution, content delivery platform, and cloud-based storage to make sure it can provide educational content to its members regardless of location, device and time of day.
“I have worn all hats in the business and in my current position at WSBA I am using all of my skills – both my tech experience and my degree in instructional theory – to help the Washington State Bar Association deliver education to legal professionals through the use of technology.”
“We used to use multiple obsolete, cumbersome, and costly solutions. At one point we had three platforms and providers doing what Edgio currently does for us. We needed a trusted partner that we could leverage for all of our digital needs, not just our audio and video files but also our course books and other files. And we wanted a network that could deliver quickly all over the world.”
“We had over 600 people around the world download an on-demand continuing legal education seminar and not one single customer complaint about access or performance issues. It was a huge success. With our previous providers, we always had several complaints about access issues.”
Michael Jorgensen, Web Production Manager – Washington State Bar Association
Michael Jorgensen is the Manager of Web Production at WSBA and oversees the delivery of educational content via live webcasting and through on-demand digital solutions.
Michael has been in the multimedia video world since 1982. He earned a vocational certificate in media technology geared toward working in educational media centers to help people operate technology and an undergraduate degree in instructional theory. Michael has worked for colleges, school districts, Fortune 500 companies, and his own company, but what brought him to WSBA was the opportunity to tap both skill sets and effectively use technology to enhance instruction.
Washington State Bar Association's Challenge
WSBA is committed to educating lawyers and other legal professionals and providing them with tools to support their success. With members ranging from fresh out of law school to closing in on retirement and located worldwide, WSBA turned to digital media to help fulfill its commitment to ensuring competent and qualified legal professionals.
WSBA’s target audience may be licensed in the state of Washington, but they live and work all around the world. While their demographic profiles range from those fresh out of law school to long-term big-firm partners, all of these members share a need – to complete their CLE requirements. One key way to fulfill their educational needs is through superbly delivered on-demand video and audio, available at any time of day, on any device and wherever they are – which is especially critical for participants in remote and rural areas or living outside the state.
The challenge facing WSBA was ensuring members have an easy-to-use, consistent viewing experience with a common look and feel to access on-demand digital products.
Before partnering with Edgio, WSBA used multiple providers for its audio and video delivery and storage needs. The workflow was disruptive, slow, and expensive. There was often a five-month delay between when content was produced and when it was made available to WSBA’s audience.
Washington State Bar Association's Solution
With Edgio, Washington State Bar Association has a single solution for all its online audio/video, delivery, and storage needs. It can deliver the best possible educational experience to WSBA’s members.
WSBA had clear criteria in mind when looking to replace WSBA’s existing solutions and they wanted:
Ease of Use
WSBA needed a solution that was easy for the audience to use and easy to use in creating, delivering and storing content.
Cost-Effectiveness
WSBA needed the right features, functions, and reliability at the right price.
Reliability
The solution needed to guarantee course books, audio, and video segments were always available and delivered a superb performance to any device, especially mobile.
Global Reach and Built-in Scalability
As WSBA members continue to move worldwide and WSBA continues to build its content libraries, WSBA needs a global and scalable solution.
A Consistent User Experience
The content needed a cohesive look and feel and needed to be optimized for each viewer’s device and bandwidth speed to play consistently with great quality.
Centralized Platform
WSBA wanted a single-vendor solution that included content creation, storage, and delivery.
As part of its due diligence, WSBA tested a recorded CLE seminar on Edgio’s platform. Together, WSBA and Edgio made a live seminar available on demand over the course of a few weeks. Over 600 WSBA members in six countries and 24 states downloaded and watched the seminar and not a single member contacted customer service with complaints. The test was a success and validated WSBA’s decision to choose Edgio.
Today WSBA has over 200 videos and nearly 600 audio files in its library, which is growing daily. With Edgio as their technology partner, WSBA can focus on creating and delivering new content and not on clearing the content backlog that existed when managing multiple vendors and workflows. The integrated solution that Edgio offers not only streamlines workflows and frees up employee resources but also reduces costs that can be used toward the continued production of continuing legal education content and growth.
“Edgio streamlines our workflows, improves the product that we are delivering, and at a price point that lets us reinvest into the education of our members. Going forward, mobile is going to be a big part of our strategy. Our members are increasingly expecting content to be available on their smartphones, tablets, and notepads. It will be key for us to accommodate their demands and Edgio will help us do that.”
