Have You Asked for Your Annual Education Budget? What to Say

Time is almost up for California MCLE compliance! Since lawyers are required to stay abreast of developments in their field, many employers offer some kind of educational budget. I liked this post by Wes Kao, a serial entrepreneur and cofounder of Maven, a platform for courses, on getting your boss pay for classes. She notes that 50% of Maven students get reimbursed and that education budgets often expire December 31. While yes you can often get MCLE classes for free, I’ve seen employers pay for coursework (e.g., privacy, CS, IP), conferences, certifications, and membership to professional groups. A good time to ask for budget is the beginning of the year (i.e., now!) or when negotiating a job offer (when you have leverage).

Wes’s sample language on how to get your budget approved is below. Feel free to tweak for your specialty and explain how specific classes/certifications are essential and worth paying for beyond free MCLE sessions provided by law firms.

1. Ask your manager if you can send details about a course that will help you on your job. Sample script: “Hey manager, I saw a course on [Maven] called {course name} that will help me improve in the X area you mentioned I should focus on and allow us to reach our team goals faster. Could I send you more about the course?”

2. Explain how the course or conference will help the employer make money and save money, and for lawyers, perhaps explain how the course or conference can help the employer stay in compliance, remain competitive (e.g., other peer employers do it), or support diversity and inclusion. Indeed, Wes suggests “fram[ing] the course in terms of how it benefits your manager, team, or company…. This will make the course feel like a no-brainer and create a sense of urgency. You’re showing how your team will fall behind if you don’t take this course–and will get ahead if you do. Managers are more likely to approve purchases that feel like painkillers, not vitamins.”

Sample email from Wes: “Hey {manager}, There’s a course called {course name} that I’d love to enroll in because it directly impacts my ability to {insert a crucial function of doing your job}. [It’s a live, online course with other managers like me from {name drop companies similar to yours}. It’s run on Maven, where 10,000+ professionals from companies like Meta, Google, Airbnb, and NASA go to upskill when they need to learn quickly and efficiently].

A few highlights:
– Direct access to {instructor name}, the expert teaching the course
– Hands-on working sessions to test new tactics and ideas
– Latest thinking on how to solve problems we’re facing

I anticipate being able to put learnings directly into practice during the course. And after the course, I can summarize and present learnings to the team so our entire team levels up.
The course costs [price]. If you like, you can review course details here, including the instructor’s bio:[course link]
What do you think?
Thanks,
[Your name]”

3. Follow up. Yes, “[m]ost people assume if they haven’t heard back, their manager secretly wants to say no but hasn’t had a chance to say so. In reality, most managers are busy, probably haven’t thought much about it, and would appreciate the nudge.”