Personality traits that make a good lawyer
Unprofessional or unethical behavior can include:
Personal Qualities Needed to Be a Lawyer
“I am someone who…”:
Much of your role as a lawyer involves making an argument on behalf of your client. 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.
While some of your court cases may be intense, you need to find ways to keep your emotions balanced when representing your client. Although it's important to show you are passionate about a case, you still need to keep your composure in the courtroom.
Lawyers need to have strong written and verbal communication skills. 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.
When working with individual clients, there may be a lot of emotions involved. Showing compassion can help your client feel better during uncertain times. It also shows that you genuinely care about their case.
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.
Sometimes finding evidence that is favorable for your client requires some creating thinking. Being a creative person is also helpful when determining what to say about a case. You need to look at a complicated situation and come up with arguments that help your client, which requires quite a bit of creativity.
Preparing your client's case can take a lot of time and effort. Lawyers need to stay driven throughout the entire process to ensure they are serving their clients to the best of their ability. This drive can help you look at a case in a new way and find better outcomes.
Compassion is an emotional response whereby one perceives another’s problem and authentically, genuinely wants to help resolve the problem. This is part of what lawyers do: People come to us with their problems, or to avoid future problems, and we help resolve or avoid the issues, whichever the case may be.
Effective communication skills are essential to good lawyering. One of the most important aspects of communication is listening. Of course, what we say, how we say it and when we say it are important. But we can only do it right if we listen first. Listen to your clients. Listen to your adversaries, your colleagues and the judges.
I often hear people say, “She’s not aggressive enough to be an effective lawyer.” That’s not right. You don’t need to be aggressive — though you must be assertive. Assertive lawyers state their opinions and make themselves heard while remaining respectful of others. Aggressive lawyers attack or ignore others’ opinions in favor of their own.
We need to be creative to find real solutions to the issues our clients face. Each matter is unique; each client must be handled differently, and each solution carefully crafted. While on the whole we lawyers are a rather risk-averse group, we must learn to think outside the box.
Success is achieved with perseverance. We must keep working, keep trying and keep going. We must be able to walk away when things are not working, take a break and come back fresh and ready to “fight,” negotiate, or whatever the matter requires.
Creativity might seem like a strange place to start. After all, we’re talking about the law, not artistic pursuits such as graphic design! However, being creative is a universal attribute that proves valuable across the board- especially for aspiring attorneys.
Communication skills are downright essential to anybody hoping to join the bar! Think about it, you might have to stand up in a courtroom and make a persuasive point to a cynical jury. Being articulate, persuasive, clear, and comprehensible is crucial to coming out on top.
However, you can’t be a strong communicator without knowing how to listen! Whether they’re speaking or writing, the best lawyers have listened to their clients first, understood their problems, and settled on the best way forward.
There’s no denying it: intelligent people tend to make better lawyers! Every element of the role calls upon the ability to analyze, interpret, research, and understand the unique components of every case. Without a reasonable level of intellect, doing well in each area can be a challenge.
However, intelligence isn’t everything! People who exceed in this field are the perfect combination of clever, logical, and empathic too.
This point relates to the last in that empathy always helps when it comes to getting on well with people. The ability to form relationships with ease and make a good first impression is critical to any attorney. Remember, this is a profession where you’re around others all the time (be it your client, the judge, your opposition, or the jury).
An unrelenting work ethic is another essential ingredient in the recipe for becoming a successful lawyer. This is a quality that you see in high-end attorneys such as Jay Rahimi and Kathleen Zellner. They go above and beyond in their bid to win.