Five Traits of Great Lawyers
Personal Qualities Needed to Be a Lawyer
Oratory Skills
From the 38 participants, the top five skills necessary to be an effective lawyer are:
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.
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.
On a fundamental level, attorneys are communicators. They communicate with their clients, they communicate with other parties to the case, and they communicate with the court. Beyond that, lawyers communicate in a wide range of different ways.
Finally, successful lawyers know how to persevere. The law is a tough field. There is no reason to sugar coat it; practicing law can be one of the most rewarding and meaningful careers out there, but it’s also a lot of work. As is true with any profession, success requires effort. There will be difficult days. You may be stuck dealing with a client who is making your life unnecessarily hard, an opposing counsel who is being rude for no reason, or a judge who rules the wrong way on a key procedural matter. You may simply be frustrated because you spilled hot coffee on your shirt that morning. It happens. What sets successful attorneys apart from ordinary attorneys is that they know how to persevere through the challenging times to get to the rewarding and meaningful moments that make it all worth it.
Whether it’s by helping them through a difficult family law matter, protect ing them against false charges , or securing fair financial compensation after an accident, attorneys advocate for people during some of the most challenging times in their life. Lawyers matter.
Willingness to Listen. One of the most underrated traits shared by almost every successful attorney is a strong ability and willingness to listen. Although strong listening is a part of overall communication skills, it’s important to highlight listening as its own professional trait.
A great lawyer knows how to get important ideas across in formal legal writing, in informal emails, in phone conversations, through discussions in official legal settings, and in private conversations.
The legal knowledge needed to be an effective corporate litigator is far different than the legal knowledge needed to help a California couple pursue a private adoption. Great lawyers know their area of practice. Some of this knowledge comes from experience. Some of it comes from education.
Some have an already developed enthusiasm for lifelong learning, but as noted by Deloitte, one of the keys to talent development is cultivating worker passion. In other words, people who are passionate about what they are doing are happier, more fulfilled, and they perform better.
The environment we are nurtured in has a significant impact on our futures. Therefore, as a lawyer, you shouldn’t be disappointed when some skills don’t come naturally. The field is vast and provides enough time and opportunity to develop essential skills.
A good lawyer must critically consider judgments and come to reasonable conclusions when dealing with a legal case. At the same time, a lawyer should notice weakness in an argument and use that to strengthen their stance. The better a lawyer judges each case, the more success he will have in legal courts and procedures.
To become a successful lawyer, you have to accept that your profession entirely deals with people. You will be expected to present good arguments as a legal practitioner. With the tips above, you should benefit your clients positively in their claims every time you are approached for a solution.
When you have your mind open to possibility, magic can happen. A lot of lawyers miss opportunities only because they are stuck to the routine and are conservative. This takes away from the chances you may have. You need to be open to opportunities that come on your way.
Creativity is the flavor of a legal career. Unless a lawyer displays creativity in problem-solving, even logic is powerless. It often happens that the best solutions are not the most obvious ones and you need to think outside of the box.
Lawyers should be good enough not only at speaking but also at listening. A lawyer that thinks about his mistress or a good cup of coffee during testimony and witness interrogation is not a good lawyer. It seems paradoxical, but good listening is even harder than good public speaking.
A law degree is not a passport to a successful legal career anymore. Lawyers should possess skills that will help them advance in the career ladder. Even if you don’t have the needed skills, practice and persistence are key to success. Your skills are something you can work on and develop over time. Here are 7 skills a lawyer should possess not only in order to advance on the career ladder but also to love what they do.
Sometimes lawyers lose that natural flavor of being oneself. This is a fault many lawyers commit when they try to be “the good lawyer.” The stereotypes and preconception guide lawyer’s behavior making him more like someone “who knows what is good and bad” and will never divert from that. Being natural is something that will make you a good lawyer even if a little odd.
Lawyers need to be excellent at communication, not just with conversations, but written discussions too. These professionals must be able to listen to all sides of the story and understand what happened so they can argue convincingly for their clients.
As a lawyer, you need to get down to the most minor and most important details when examining a case. The study and practice of law require you to absorb vast amounts of information and distill that data into something you can use.
The best lawyers know how to use logic and fact to their advantage. However, when you’re fighting against another professional who also knows how to get your audience questioning what’s real, you also need creativity to set you apart and make the judge and jury pay attention.