Built on Trust: How Summit Law Created a Training System That Improves Productivity and Earns Team Buy-in

At Summit Law, the work carries weight.

The firm practices criminal law, family law, and civil litigation — areas where people are often stressed, timelines are tight, and details matter more than anyone would like them to. There’s no margin for “I think this is right” or “let me check with someone.”

Every call.
Every file.
Every handoff.

Competence isn’t just expected in the courtroom — it’s required behind the scenes.

And for a long time, that competence lived with the people who knew the work by heart.

The verdict? That approach isn’t efficient.

When experience lives in people, not systems

On the surface, Summit Law had documentation covered.

Standard operating procedures existed. Policies were written down. Instructions lived in PDFs, stored in Basecamp, and shared with the teams who needed them.

But in practice, the system wasn’t efficient.

Some documents weren’t updated. Not everyone had access to the same information. And when someone needed an answer quickly, especially for a task they didn’t do every day, tracking down the documentation was far from easy.

So people did what made sense.

They asked someone who knew.

Keith, Summit Law’s head of IT and a member of the senior management team, had been with the firm since 2015. Over time, he became one of those people.

“I know every procedure in this firm like the back of my hand,” Keith says.

It worked, until the firm realized something important.

When knowledge lives with people instead of in a system everyone trusts, the business depends on availability, not clarity.

The interruption tax

Once knowledge lives with people, interruptions become inevitable.

How do I do this again?
Where’s the right form?
What’s the process when someone’s out?

People didn’t always go to their direct supervisor. They went to senior management.

“When people have questions, they don’t always go to their immediate supervisor. They’ll ask us.”

None of the questions were unreasonable. But psychologically, they carried a hidden cost.

Every interruption forced a context switch, pulling attention away from focused work, breaking momentum, and making it harder to return to complex tasks. Over time, those small disruptions compound.

Leadership became the safety net — and high-value work was constantly fragmented as a result.

The firm wasn’t broken.
But the system only worked as long as the right people were available.

That’s not a scalable foundation.

The shift: building a system the firm could trust

When Summit Law committed to Trainual, it wasn’t about ‘modernizing’ for the sake of it.

It was about fixing a real problem.

Instead of treating documentation as a static archive, the firm used Trainual to map workflows end to end — from call flows and intake to case setup and day-to-day operations.

Keith describes the difference simply:

“Trainual guides staff in their job responsibilities and procedures.”

That sentence marks the shift.

When the person who normally handled a task was out, someone else could step in without pulling leadership into the moment.

“They’re able to go to Trainual and quickly access something rather than relying on senior management to come in and fill in the gaps.”

Answers became self-serve. Coverage became smoother. And the firm felt the change almost immediately.

Trainual as a forcing function for better processes

One of the most unexpected benefits, Keith says, was what Trainual required of them.

“Trainual was the driving force behind us looking at all of our standard operating procedures and streamlining them.”

Putting everything into the system meant slowing down and asking hard questions:
Is this still the best way to do this?
Does this process actually make sense?
Are we doing this because it works — or because it’s familiar?

“It caused us to reexamine all of our standard operating procedures.”

The result wasn’t just clearer documentation.

It was better workflows.

Trainual didn’t just capture how Summit Law worked — it helped them work more efficiently.

Click "Next" 👆 to see how Summit Law Group uses Trainual.

When the SOP becomes the source of truth

The biggest shift wasn’t technical. It was cultural.

Trainual became the place where Summit Law’s way of working lived.

If a process existed, it lived in Trainual.
If something was missing or inefficient, staff flagged it.
If improvements were made, they were documented and shared.

The team could suggest changes, and leadership made the final call.

“Staff knows and expects that their standard operating procedure is in Trainual.”

That expectation built trust — and kept the system relevant.

A two-way system: how buy-in actually happened

Keith is clear about one thing: Trainual only works if the trust goes both ways.

You can’t expect your team to rely on a system if the information isn’t accurate, current, or worth their time. And you can’t expect buy-in if leadership treats documentation as a “set it and forget it” project.

“You can’t expect your team to have their first instinct be Trainual if things aren’t kept up to date.”

From the start, Summit Law made expectations explicit.

The team is expected to look in Trainual first when they have a question. Leadership, in turn, is responsible for making sure what they find there is correct.

That clarity shaped the rollout.

Everyone started fresh in Trainual — but only with the content relevant to their role, and the roles they might need to cover. As processes evolved, feedback flowed up. Updates flowed back down.

“It’s a symbiotic relationship.”

That balance is what created buy-in. Staff trust the system because it’s dependable. Leadership trusts the system because it’s used.

And Trainual becomes more than software — it becomes part of how the firm works, day to day.

Peace of mind — for leadership and staff

For Keith, the payoff wasn’t flashy. It was calming.

“Trainual has made our lives a lot easier.”

Fewer interruptions. Fewer repeat questions. Less pressure to be the keeper of institutional knowledge.

Staff feel more confident stepping into tasks they don’t do every day. Coverage feels manageable. And instead of relying on leadership to fill gaps, the firm relies on the system they’ve built together.

“Now things run smoothly. People know where to go to look up how to do something.”

That shift changed the culture — from reactive to prepared.

For anyone on the fence

Keith doesn’t sugarcoat the initial work — but he also doesn’t see it as a downside.

Building strong systems takes effort and intention. It requires slowing down, looking closely at how work is actually done, and deciding how it should be done.

“You should always be looking at your procedures to determine if they’re efficient,” Keith says. “Implementing Trainual gives you a great reason — and the time — to do that.”

For Summit Law, that work was an investment. The kind that pays off quietly, every day.

Once the foundation was in place, the return showed up in all the right ways:

“You’ll recoup it on the back end.”

Through time saved. Fewer interruptions. Smoother workflows. And more focus on the work that truly matters.

Because the things worth building don’t happen by accident. They’re built on purpose.

TL;DR — The impact of Trainual at Summit Law

• Centralized core SOPs into a single source of truth
• Replaced static PDFs with a living operating system
• Reduced leadership interruptions through self-serve training
• Enabled faster, more confident coverage when someone is out
• Documented end-to-end legal workflows in ~2 months
• Improved clarity and efficiency in a high-stakes environment

Looking ahead

Summit Law knows the nature of its work won’t slow down.

What has changed is how prepared the firm is to handle it.

With Trainual, competence isn’t improvised.
Consistency isn’t assumed.
And clarity doesn’t depend on who’s available.

It’s built in.

👉 Want to turn tribal knowledge into a training system your team can trust? Book a demo and see how Trainual makes it possible.