Five Traits of Great Lawyers
Personality Traits Every Lawyer Should Have
PROS of Becoming a Defense Attorney. Earning potential is excellent (top pay for lawyers was roughly $187,000 or more as of 2014)*. Can work for a variety of employers, including individuals, companies or the government as public defenders*. Position allows you to stand up to authority on a regular basis and fight for the common man**.
Remember, you are the one who is a legal professional, meaning that you need to have the ability to communicate complicated legal concepts in simplified terms. Your communication skills can help you ensure your client and the jury understand what you are trying to tell them. Likewise, much of this role involves written correspondence, meaning you need to be an effective writer.
Rather than giving in to what the other side of the courtroom is saying, you need to be the kind of person who is willing to argue for what you believe in. You need to think of arguments that are going to be favorable for your client and ways to present them in a persuasive way.
When presenting your case to the jury, you need to show them that you are confident about your client's stance. Being a lawyer also requires public-speaking skills which require a great deal of confidence. You need to be able to eloquently present evidence and arguments for your client.
Although it's important to show you are passionate about a case, you still need to keep your composure in the courtroom. Showing a sense of respect and professionalism to the judge and other individuals involved in a case can help your client's position and improve your reputation as a lawyer.
Most law programs require three years of intense studying and comprehension of legal terms and processes. You need to take the knowledge you learned through law school and experience and apply it to every task you do. Your intelligence can help you ensure you are giving good legal advice and making smart arguments.
As a lawyer, you are working with all kinds of evidence and sensitive information. Your organization skills can help you ensure only the right people are getting access to these materials. Likewise, being organized can help you ensure you are keeping all of your legal documents in order. This is important when you need to reference them for a case.
Even if your client doesn't claim innocence, your persuasive skills can help you get them a better plea bargain. The way you present evidence can drastically alter the way a case concludes. If you are a strong negotiator, you can help your client leave the courtroom in a favorable position.
Confidence: Another relevant skill that a lawyer should possess is confidence . A lawyer should appear confident while presenting a case and talking to a client. Confidence not only reassures the clients about the status of their case but also makes the arguments presented by the lawyer to be much more compelling.
Lawyers are responsible for the fate of their clients. A good lawyer is, therefore, essential to uphold the integrity of the legal system. To effectively make use of the laws in place and to ensure that justice is served in the shortest time possible, lawyers should have certain good qualities.
A lawyer should be able to articulate the matter appropriately, represent his/her client’s stance, and draft notices expressly outlining the reasons. The logic outlined in his/her draft needs to be coherent. This drafting skill is needed to complement the oration skills of the lawyer. In the practice of law, drafting is as much important as speech.
Empathy is an essential quality for lawyers because, without it, the judicial machine will be reduced to a platform for money making solely.
A lawyer should be a patient listener. It is the inability to listen to his/her clients or opponents that cause lawyers to lose even the strongest of cases.
It is the lawyers who show the judges the path of justice, by presenting their case in a meticulous and truthful manner.
The profession of legal practice is one of the most highly regarded occupations in the world. The job description of a lawyer includes representing his/her clients in a court of law, in a particular case. In India, an individual can become a lawyer after clearing the All India Bar Examinations.
Here are the top 5 qualities of a good lawyer: responsiveness, analytical skills, good research skills, speaking skills, and listening skills. 5. Analytical Skills – All lawyers should be able to look at any situation and analyze it from all points of view.
2. Speaking Skills – All lawyers must be able to speak clearly and concisely. A lot of lawyers are comfortable in front of a large group of people, but they lack the ability to form a logical thought that gets his/her point across. Another aspect of speaking skills is to understand legal terminology.
If you can’t understand your lawyer, then neither can the jury. 1. Listening Skills – In order to properly understand the case, all lawyers must listen to their clients. Without listening skills, the lawyer will miss pertinent information.
Responsiveness – This is a skill that not every lawyer has, which a lot of clients find out about quickly. All lawyers should respond to their clients, law partners, secretaries, and anyone else involved in a case.
A lawyer’s opinion does not stand up in court, so it must be backed with facts. That’s where the research and investigation comes in. All lawyers should know how to work with investigators, use online resources, research laws, regulations, and judicial opinions to back their case up.
Law schools will teach you some of the skills you need, but they can't teach character. In order to become a "good" lawyer, you have to naturally have certain qualities. Some of these qualities you've discovered within yourself in your time as a law student, but others may need to be worked on.
Lawyers must be orally articulate, have good written communication skills and also be good listeners. In order to argue convincingly in the courtroom before juries and judges, good public speaking skills are essential. Communication and speaking skills can be developed during your studies by taking part in activities such as mooting or general public speaking.
But it’s not all about projection. To be able to analyse what clients tell them or follow a complex testimony, a lawyer must have good listening skills.
2) Judgement. The ability to draw reasonable, logical conclusions or assumptions from limited information is essential as a lawyer. You must also be able to consider these judgements critically, so that you can anticipate potential areas of weakness in your argument that must be fortified against.
Law is not an abstract practice. Irrelevant of how well someone does academically, at the end of the day lawyers work with people, on behalf of people, and the decisions that are made affect people's lives.
At times, there will be more than one reasonable conclusion, or more than one precedent applicable to resolving a situation. A lawyer must therefore have the evaluative skills in order to choose which is the most suitable.
Persuasion is another skill a good lawyer must possess. Being able to develop this skill can make a difference not only when presenting the case, but also to “convince” the court about your client’s position So, if you are considering to be a good lawyer, you’d better start training your persuasiveness. 3.
For you to be a successful lawyer enjoying a well-argued discussion with people is a good one, because this shows you are on the right track. This is one of the major characteristics a good lawyer must possess to success in the profession ; as a professional, you are expected to devote part your day to exposing certain fact related to your arguments for the benefit of your client.
Persistence is synonymous to this profession and is another great virtue of a good lawyer; as a lawyer is never allowed to surrender. A successful lawyer must be willing to fight to the end to achieve your goals. As we know, all know failure is inevitable, but you will have to be prepared to stand up as many times you fall.
Every lawyer must be ready to work with agility to face and overcome any obstacles necessary to achieve his/her objectives. Possessing all these great qualities will make you stand out unique amongst your colleagues. So, take the time to develop yourself and make a different in your society. Advertising.
Lawyers are enterprising and investigative. Lawyers tend to be predominantly enterprising individuals, which means that they are usually quite natural leaders who thrive at influencing and persuading others. They also tend to be investigative, which means that they are quite inquisitive and curious people that often like to spend time alone ...
Investigative. An investigative person is someone who lives in the mind. To solve problems, they prefer reading and studying, books and text, rather than their using their hands. They tend to analyze situations before making decisions. Investigative people are independent thinkers that are both curious and insightful.