Cognistar Launches Online Programs with Pillsbury Winthrop LLP

Cognistar Launches Online Programs with Pillsbury Winthrop LLP

WESTBOROUGH, Mass., Jan. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Cognistar(R) Holdings LLC today announced the launch of a new joint program with Pillsbury Winthrop LLP, called Cognistar LawPartner, for the development and distribution of continuing legal education programs via the Internet.

Growing out of an internal Pillsbury Winthrop training initiative known within the firm as "Pillsbury Winthrop University," the two organizations will co-produce online CLE courses for Pillsbury Winthrop's attorneys and paraprofessionals. The courses will feature Pillsbury Winthrop attorneys in video vignettes and utilize Cognistar's state-of-the-art online courseware technology.

Pillsbury Winthrop will offer the courses via its intranet to its lawyers, its paraprofessionals, and ultimately, to its clients. Cognistar will offer some of the courses for sale to others via its online CLE course catalog.

The first program released under this new alliance is Ethics Tips for In- House Counsel: Avoiding Common and Less Evident Pitfalls, features a presentation by David Keyko, a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop who specializes in complex litigation and has written frequently on legal ethics matters. It is available to the public through Cognistar's online CLE course catalog at http://www.cognistar.com/.

A second jointly produced course, E-Discovery in the Second Circuit, will present Pillsbury Winthrop litigation partner Ed Flanders analyzing the current state of this developing law. It is scheduled to be released this month.

Both programs take full advantage of Cognistar's videocentric, multimedia- rich online learning environment, including, for example, illustrative vignettes created by Pillsbury Winthrop to illustrate evidentiary issues in the electronic documents discovery context.

Cognistar and Pillsbury Winthrop anticipate the joint production of ten (10) additional courses throughout 2005 as developments in the law and the legal training needs of the firm require.

The first co-produced course elicited rave reviews from Valerie Fitch, Director of Professional Development at Pillsbury Winthrop. Fitch declared in an e-mail to Cognistar executives, "Our first LawPartner course came out beautifully, and you captured our content perfectly. This course (and others) will be a great in-house and client tool for us. Important information, creatively presented, and extremely well executed. Great job!"

Cognistar, a Massachusetts-based e-learning company has provided online continuing legal education on a commercial basis for five years. "LawPartner alliances like that Cognistar now enjoys with Pillsbury Winthrop allow us to apply what we have learned and developed in the commercial market to the precise needs of internal professional development programs within law firms and corporate law departments," said Cognistar President and CEO Joe Hecker.

"Cognistar has earned a reputation for its superior, state-of-the-art CLE," added Hecker. "We are delighted to have the opportunity to bring that high standard to the professional development program at law firms as committed as we are to excellent professional education -- law firms like Pillsbury Winthrop. We congratulate Pillsbury Winthrop and Valerie Fitch, in particular, for their vision and enthusiasm for working with us at Cognistar to raise the quality bar in legal market e-learning."

Cognistar Holdings LLC, Cognistar(R), produces state-of-the-art e-learning programs for professionals and executives. Attorneys have chosen Cognistar for its superior, fully-accredited CLE content since 2000. Subscribers to Cognistar's services include America's largest and most prestigious law firms and corporate law departments. LexisNexis(R) has formed a strategic alliance with Cognistar to offer its full suite of online CLE courses and programs via the LexisNexis Professional Development Center. For more information visit http://www.cognistar.com/.


Source: Cognistar Holdings LLC

CONTACT: U. Joseph Hecker of Cognistar Holdings, +1-508-366-3600
ext. 350, jhecker@cognistar.com

Web site: http//www.cognistar.com


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