Lawyers can spend years training for their chosen profession – their ‘hard skills’, those that are job specific, are taught over this time, and become almost second-nature. However, being a good lawyer isn’t just about knowing how to do the job. This is where ‘soft skills’ training comes to the fore.
‘Soft skills’ is an umbrella term that encompasses talents such as, negotiating, communication, relationship building, management and leadership skills, or networking abilities, and are the skills that complement your intelligence and expertise.
These soft skills should be developed alongside your career, helping you to become a better ‘people-person’; more empathic, approachable, and successful. You’ll notice those colleagues that have exceptional soft skills, as they’re the ones who nurture good working relationships, always have time to listen or help, and who keep both their managers, and their clients, happy.
Establishing the need for lawyers, and barristers, to possess soft skills is straightforward enough, but knowing how to acquire, maintain, and develop these skills can take time, and patience.
This blog will cover some of these soft skills, highlighting what they are, how to achieve them, and why they are important to your legal career.
Communication for Lawyers
The value of good communication skills within the legal industry, can’t be stressed enough. You will need to have excellent verbal, and written skills, so that clients, and colleagues, can easily understand your point, can be persuaded by your arguments, so that they know that you have listened to their views, understood them, and paid attention to them.
Clients will expect their lawyer to be able to communicate their perspective, be courteous, professional, and salient – not someone who is brash, aloof, or who uses terminology, and language, with which they can’t relate.
When writing, try to avoid legal jargon (unless necessary) as technical terms, obscure words, and archaic language can make you sound pretentious and unapproachable. Likewise, limit your use of colloquialisms, and unnecessary abstract phrases as these tend to distract the reader from the main purpose.
In order to increase your communication skills it is worth considering some formal training, especially if you plan to speak to large groups of people, for instance, in court.
Consider joining local discussion groups, business groups, or debating societies in order to give you an opportunity to listen to other engaging speakers, and rehearse your own skills.
To improve your writing skills you might like to write infrequent articles for local newspapers, legal publications, or local volunteer groups.
Appearance, Dress and Attitude
First impressions can often last a lifetime, especially if they are bad ones!
Dress for your environment, checking in advance of an event if you’re unsure of the correct dress code, and if you are meeting with clients, colleagues, or employers it is vital to look the part by dressing smartly, but simply.
Alongside the clothes you wear, your body language, attitude, and professionalism are likely to be judged on first appearances.
Of course, just looking, sounding, and acting the part of professional lawyer will only get you so far – you must follow your words with actions; join in extracurricular activities, show willingness to help, and, avoid letting people down whenever possible.
Maintaining a friendly, positive approach to people will help you to establish, and build, lasting relationships, both with clients, and colleagues, which is a vital part of becoming a successful lawyer.
Developing your soft skills will help you to be more confident in many settings, giving you an advantageous edge. You can also advance your continuing professional development with many courses which can be tailored to your specific requirements, which also helps with confidence, appearance, and attitude.
The Compassionate Lawyer
Within the law industry, it is essential that you can understand and appreciate others’ views, and perspectives, especially in areas such as conflict resolution, negotiation, and when you are required to be persuasive.
For some, this compassion and empathy does not come easily (a glance at most daily newspapers will show this) but, it is a skill that should be cultivated by all lawyers, as it often the key to improved success.
Understanding different cultures, learning how to become a better leader and manager, and knowing how to communicate on others’ levels, will help to improve your empathy and compassion, making you a better, happier lawyer and person.
Continuing professional development can encompass many soft skills, such as, those suggested above. Your career progression will depend upon your ability to master adaptability, communication, negotiation, consideration, attitude, and so on.
Training courses, specifically designed for lawyers, to assist with management and leadership, communication, international business, dispute resolution, or finance, can all help you to become more knowledgeable, confident, and successful.
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