What Are the Key Skills that Lawyers Need to Develop - Essay Example

What Are the Key Skills that Lawyers Need to Develop?  Introduction Law firms as well as chambers hire applicants who have certain skills to enable them succeed in legal field, when hiring candidates, firms look for particular qualities that are needed more and more. Law firms use huge sums of money and time searching for the right people, training and developing the selected candidates to become best lawyers and future partners. This is the reason they spent a lot of time evaluating what traits and qualities make “the brightest lawyer”, and always want to hire only the most competent and able person. Nonetheless, law firms and chambers understand that they may not get the finished product, but they look for “projected ability” as well as actual potential. Holborn (2001) notes that it cannot be assumed that all employers look for exactly same aspects; nonetheless, aspiring lawyers have to exhibit certain visible skills to succeed as a barrister or solicitor and to work successfully in the competitive business world. This paper examines these skills, that each aspiring lawyer or practicing lawyer should posses. Soft skills In recent times, there has been increased emphasis on need for soft skills among legal profession, and various legal firm have responded by introducing training courses and programmes to train their lawyers and partners in oft skills (Giusti, 2007). Soft skills are basically defined as skills that impact the manner people interact with each other (Giusti, 2007). They include effective communication, interpersonal skills, leadership, team building and on advanced level, career planning, project management and time management. Soft skills are normally contrasted to technical skills, where for lawyers these include, knowledge of law, legal analysis, legal drafting and legal practice. Whereas the business world has been using soft skills for a long time, the legal profession only realised the significance of soft skills recently. Soft skills are therefore important in legal field when interacting with current and potential clients, and in the firm when interacting with superiors, juniors and other employees (Giusti, 2007). The legal world seems to have realised that to succeed in his career and employment, a layer needs to understand and effectively use both soft skills and technical skills. It is against this background that lawyers have to learn and master soft skills. Despite the clear importance of soft skills, some lawyers still think that they do not require any special training in soft skills (Giusti, 2007). Other lawyers suppose that leadership skills and soft skills are inborn and those who do not have these qualities cannot learn them. However, such thoughts are wrong; lawyers who do not have soft skills will usually go through difficulties and shortcoming in their career. In general, they will face difficulties in developing their business when it comes to winning new customers, and within their firm, they will face problems in managing their teams. Verbal communication As a lawyer, you will daily be interacting with clients, colleges and other people in your professional work. Thus, as noted by Kenny (2002) being able to hold conversations with people is very critical for a lawyer. The lawyer will be called upon to explain complex issues to clients with clarity and accuracy. Similarly, the lawyer will have to get information from clients and advice them, make deals and present the clients’ cases. All these aspects require verbal communication skills comprising of information collection, advising and negotiation (Kenny, 2002). Therefore, it is vital that a lawyer have the ability to articulate well what he wants to say and have skills to handle different people in different circumstances in his daily operations. Being aware of the importance of verbal communication skills will greatly help you in developing them. Interpersonal skills Lawyers spend a lot of time sitting behind their desk in the office; however the do not sit alone in the office. A good lawyer has to relate with all kinds of people and create a successful working relation. In office, a lawyer needs to interact with fellow colleges, trainees, support staff and senior lawyers (Pinker, 1994). Thus, there is need to demonstrate teamwork and willingness to contribute towards the team. Interpersonal skills as well involve the ability to cope with people in complex and difficult situation. Usually, people seek the services of lawyers when they are facing crisis, for example after committing a crime or when they have disagreed with others. During this time, clients can be very emotional and as a lawyer you have to possess skills that can enable you to respond effectively to the needs of the clients. This will ensure that you keep their confidence and trust and at the same time be appropriately involved in their case. Legal writing skills A high number of legal skills books currently acknowledge that legal writing is an important that is different from legal drafting. As explained by Magaret Costanzao in her book, “ Legal Writing”, legal writing is basically a system of resolving problems and suggesting options, while legal drafting entails defining relationships and formulating procedures. Legal writing mostly deals with original composition (Costanzo, 1993, p, 3). Having the ability to write effectively does not make a person a lawyer. however, if one a lawyer does not have the ability to write effectively, the he will hampered in his progress as a lawyer. Many practicing lawyers believe that they are able to write effectively, the problem is that their client has a different opinion. Holmes and Venables (1999) points out that lawyer are reputed for bad communication with their clients, just like doctors are reputed for their bad handwriting. Sadly, both reputations appear to be justified. According to The Office for Supervision of Solicitors, poor communication is the leading reason of consumer dissatisfaction in regard to legal services (Rylance, 1994). Similarly, a lot of complaints forwarded to the Bar Council concerning barristers appear to originate from poor communication from lawyers. One complex function of a lawyer is assisting clients in safeguarding or affirming their rights that are underlined by law. According to Law Society (1999) whether lawyers are acting as solicitors or barristers, they are normally under a professional obligation to say what his client would have said if he had the necessary skills and knowledge. This is an example of principles duties of a lawyer. Thus, the lawyer has a responsibility to communicate in an effective way with his client in order the client to decide on the way forward. Due to this responsibility, there is an emphasis on lawyers to inform, advice and assist clients, this is why effective communication is crucial skills for lawyers. Legal research skills One true fact is that each problem is different from another; this is similar in the case of law problem (Boyle et al 2003). Though some problems may have similarities, it is rare for them to exactly similar. Lawyers in legal practice also realise that no two clients presents exactly similar problems. As noted by Costanzo (1993) each problem will differ on its facts though they may relate to similar law. This experience will be encountered by both solicitors and barristers. Accordingly, lawyers are required to develop skills of searching for the relevant material and using the material in a particular given problem. This searching of pertinent material is what is referred as the skill of research (Holborn, 2001). Applying pertinent material to the specific problem of a client by a lawyer requires skills of practical legal research. The important aspects of legal research skills include: Problem analysis: this involves identification and evaluation of a problem Search and gathering of information: this entails finding suitable information to apply in solving the problem Communication: this is presenting the final results of evaluation and research in a suitable and effective way. Kolb, et al, (1984)formulated a model four steps of problem solving that a one must go through in trying to solve a problem, this include: situation analysis, problem analysis, solution analysis and implementation analysis. On the other hand, Stott (2003) explains that search and gathering of information requires one to consider the following aspects, fact collection, legal knowledge, legal analysis, fact evaluation and fact collection. After problem analysis and gathering of information, the information has to be presented in an effective manner that indentifies the client’ needs, a suitable format language need to be used in the final presentation. All these thus require lawyers to acquire research skills. Advocacy skills According to Munkman (1991) advocacy skill is an integral part if learning law. Normally, advocacy is viewed as belong to the bar, however, this ignores the fact that even solicitors can seek audience in courts. Shaw (1996) states that good advocacy is founded on good preparation, though the preparation should not be seen. Shaw (1996) adds that advocacy is an art involving persuasion in a legal environment, and the persuasion has to be based in excellent understanding of the facts in the case, a good admiration of the law, and a logical persuasive presentation before the court. Thus, the preparation is always an integral part of your advocacy; however the lawyer must establish a way to apply his preparation in supporting the advocacy. As a lawyer, you must understand your case. Analyzing the case will assist you in identifying the main issue of the case. Preparing your speech and the way you handle your witness will help you cover what to intend to cover. Nonetheless, you have to be completely familiar with all information about the case to be confident of dealing with unexpected issues which could come up. Nonetheless, apart from preparing for your case, you must as well make sure that you are ready for the advocacy. As mentioned by Blake (2003) the lawyer as an advocate has to consider his presentation skills, and particularly the tone of his voice. He adds that as an advocate, the information you pass will be said by the manner of your voice. Thus, Blake (2003) asserts that as lawyer, you therefore need to aware of the impact of your voice, and modulate it to ensure that it positively contributes to your advocacy. Negotiation skills Negotiation simply means conferring with the aim of reaching a common agreement (Menkel-Meadow, 1984). Thus, any time you to somebody with the objective of reaching a mutual agreement on an issue, you are basically negotiating. Formal negotiations are like a game of chess, each move relies on the previous one and you have to think ahead to full exploit your position. Fowler (1996) notes that negotiation is a process and not a single skill, there are numerous separate skills required in the process of negotiation. Fowler (1996)further observes that legal negotiations differ from other forms of negotiation particularly in three major ways; lawyers speak on behalf of their clients, legal negotiations requires thorough preparation, and lawyers have to follow legal rules when negotiating. Lawyers are involved in two forms of negotiation, those meant to resolve a dispute and those meant to prevent a dispute (Stone, 1995). A lot of negotiations happen in civil cases and not criminal cases, although negotiation can as well happen in criminal cases regarding plea bargaining (Fowler, 1996). As mentioned negotiation is a process that comprises several skills, these include; listening, to respond effectively during the negotiation, one has to attentively hear what the other party is saying. Related to this is active listening, this entails not only listening but understanding what the other side is saying and being able to state their position. Understanding the body language, various types of body language may disclose what you or the other side is feeling, and it’s very important to have some understanding of this (Boyle et al 2003). Other important skills that lawyers should have when negotiating include, questioning skills, and persuasion skills. In addition, there is need for good preparation before negotiating to present your case effectively. Clinch (1999) observes that lawyers also need to be honesty, polite and conscious when approaching negotiations. Commercial acumen skills According to Rose (2002) commercial acumen is one of the most sought for skills by recruiters in trainees that has continued to increasingly become important in today’s legal environment. Rose (2002) adds that trainee solicitors are thus expected to come out as good lawyers and business advisors. In the same vein Kenny (2002) explains that commercial awareness simply means developing a good understanding of the business world in which law companies and clients operate. To Clinch (1999), aspiring lawyers should be able to acknowledge the duty of a commercial lawyer as well as the commercial environment in which they offer the legal services. The best manner to show that have commercial acumen skills and be a good commercial lawyer is by demonstrating your ability and capacity to think in a commercial way, and from the viewpoint of the client. Being a commercial lawyer, means understanding the client’s businesses so as to offer them excellent legal counsel. A client involved in commercial activities does not mind about technical legal terminologies, but he will be much interested in the effect the terminologies may have on his transactions. Many city law firms always provide legal advice with business aspects and law students need to be aware of commercial activities so that they can formulate legal advice to their client. Conclusion Today, lawyers must develop a number of skills to effectively deal with increased demands in the profession. There are several key skills that lawyers need to develop to ensure that they are effective in their professional work. This paper has examined some of them starting with soft skills, legal research skills, advocacy skills negotiation skills and commercial acumen skills. Though these are not all, they remain very important for any lawyer. Those aspiring to be lawyers or who are already in the practice need to develop them, these skills are not optional, there are compulsory. 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