In this article, Shubham Prakash of Symbiosis Law School, Pune discusses the makings of a successful lawyer.
Qualities of a successful lawyer
Qualities, attitude and skills play a very vital role in making of a lawyer successful. Lawyers develop these skills from the very initial stage when they start as law students. In present era the law schools are also playing a very importation role in developing such skill. The competition and approach in field of law changed a lot from last 20 years. Hence it is very important in such competitive field to be very professional, passionate, commitment towards work and having accurate knowledge of law. Other than these skills, there is some etiquette that a successful lawyer always carries. There is a difference between a good lawyer and a successful lawyer. At last a lawyer who carries all the qualities and skills with correct attitude make him a successful lawyer.
Introduction
A lawyer must contain both hard skills and soft skills. Being a successful lawyer you must be very passionate, inquisitive, reasonably logical, sound judgement, persuasive and must have very good writing ability. These necessary abilities grown from the first day you start going to law school as a law student. Today, the law schools are also playing a very important role in making the law students learn the basic hard and soft skills that being in legal profession one must contain. Such guidance plays a very important role in making a law student a successful and good lawyer. Hard skills are technical abilities related to specific occupational domains such as engineering, marketing, finance, or construction. They are called hard skills because they are specific, tangible, and often observable. Soft skills in comparison are less tangible and not specific to any occupation. They are like strategic thinking, problem solving, maintaining self-control, reading others, planning and communicating effectively. These are the skills that play a very important role in legal profession. These skills only make a lawyer successful and make a lawyer shine differently from other lawyers. Everything can be explained on basis of this, which includes every success and every failure. This is the reason why Rancho in ‘Three Idiots’ turned out to me more successful than Chatur. This is the reason why Harvey Spectre and not Luis Litt is the lead character in ‘Suits’. There are many people who do fairly well in life but are they satisfied with that? What is the reason that we have only one Ram Jethmalani? So despite having every capability these below discussed skills are basic foundation that make a lawyer successful and best.
Quality traits of a successful lawyer
When one opt for legal studies one must be very clear that he will be practicing law and it requires hard skills, soft skills and effectiveness for practicing law competently. For being a successful lawyer it is very important to develop actual and substantive knowledge of law from the very first day. The person opting legal profession must be self- motivate and must be self directed as it is very important for keeping yourself moving and also your work. The legal profession is the profession having a lot of burden and different kind of pressure. “Johns Hopkins study of 28 professions found that lawyers were 3.6 times more likely to have a depression over the course of a lifetime and had depressive episodes more than any other professional”[1]. So for being a successful lawyer the person must be self-motivated and need to be stay strong and bounce back.
There is always lot to study in law so there must be lifelong commitment for learning as per Pat Nester, Executive Director of Texas Bar CLE, a lawyer for being successful and excellent must take advantage of very opportunity for improving his skills and knowledge and quality of their practice. Nester spoke of “a solemn oath to stay abreast of all things that will impact your practice.”[2] You should also develop your communication skills as lawyer always need to convince the client as well as the Judge. In legal profession what make a difference between lawyers is their skills of taking the facts of law and molding it into a persuasive case. In current era, the law schools are playing a very important role in building such techniques of persuasion and analytical thinking by providing guidance and training from experts in legal field. The good law schools also focus on developing the skills of problem solving and strategically thinking of let’s focus on the what the issue is for solving the problem of the clients. A good leadership quality is very important as a successful lawyer also depend for may work on his team so a good leadership quality will help in smooth functioning with the team co-members and with the clients. In my opinion, the role of a legal practitioner is very unique to uphold the rule of law. So a law student develops such skills from the very first day of his legal studies.
There are certain skills that are required to be a successful lawyer after you step out of a law school into actual world of practicing as a legal professional. For being a good and successful lawyer you must be very lenient and attentive towards your clients. As when you enter into actual practice the client became one of the most important part and it is well said that no one can be lawyer without having clients. Communication skills are very important as the art that good lawyer carries is that they communicate with clients in such a way that they take out the full information which the client tells and what the does not want to. It is important for being a successful lawyer to be very critical in thinking, able to follow a chain of logics, trace the weakness and to at last exercise their judgment for doing justice with the client. Hence, both the interpersonal and analytical skills are important for a successful lawyer. Perseverance is very important quality of a successful lawyer.[3]
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
“Skills are what make good lawyers great. The vast majority of job candidates know the law. Those who shine know themselves even better.” –Elizabeth Moeller.
There are different qualities and skills that every successful lawyer contains some of the skills are developed at the primary stage that is while persuading legal studies and some are developed when a lawyer step into the actual world of practice. Law is a field which is growing every day. Gone are the days when people used to opt for it as a last resort. With more and more people getting attracted towards it and with the general growth in the level of competition, bookish knowledge may help but to what extent? To be a successful lawyer- whether it is a matter of getting placed by shining through interviews or independent practice or competitive exams, what is required is something other than just knowing the law. There is always a difference between a good and a successful lawyer. According to me, the attitude, quality and skills that make lawyers successful can be divided into two parts i.e. what they learn as law student, when they become a legal professional.
WHEN YOU ARE A LAW STUDENT
Law is a field that requires command on details of legislation, case laws and a wider view of how different areas interlock. Basically, a lawyer and a law student need to remember lot of things and for that they need to develop a base. In developing a good base for becoming good lawyer law school plays a very important role. The train the law student in such ways which are required to practice law competently and effectively for being successful. Some of these are[4]:
Command over language: This ability is quintessential for each attorney. You should have the capacity to convey what needs be proficiently and clearly to do well in this industry.
Oratory skills: Good speaker is the most important skill for a lawyer. This is developed through mooting, debating and doing various presentations. It strengthens confidence; develop the voice and improving the art of modulating the voice as per the situation. Speech and mannerisms are critical for any lawyer and it will immensely help anyone studying this course in developing skills and gain necessary confidence.
Reading habit: legal profession means life time commitment towards reading. This habit is developed form a very starting. Reading different novels related to law, culture, history politics and science, etc. These will help in developing the 3As that are attitude, aptitude and analytics. There qualities help in developing the quality off analyzing a problem and reaching to calculated conclusion.
Perseverance: During initial period a law student may face harsh working hour. These help them in developing hard work and patient. These make them learn the difference between deserving and desiring.
Current affairs and research work: It is very important to keep yourself up-to-date on area of laws, about new developments and new case laws. The law schools also give good training to the law students in the field of research methodology. It develops a critical thinking of looking a legal issue from all sides in order to come to a vest and calculated solution. The legal research methods have changed and challenged lot from last 20 years. Hence they keep student aware about different changes to provide good imperial research quality which help in presenting clients case in best way. It develops a critical thinking of looking a legal issue from all sides in order to come to a vest and calculated solution.
Punctuality: the law schools generally have a dress code which gives them a training of formal and official atmosphere. Help in developing professional behaviour. Lawyers cannot behave unprofessional and it also indicates the seriousness of a legal profession.
Writing skill: In legal profession the drafting of any legal document plays a very important role. Hence it is very important to learn and develop good drafting skills. Even in exams for completing your law degree you must have good writing and critical thinking skills so as to be very particular in writing a good answer. These skills can make a big difference between a general lawyer and a successful lawyer.
WHEN YOU BECOME A LEGAL PROFESSIONAL
The following are the qualities and skills are required by a lawyer to be successful and some of these skills are developed from the time of learning the law as student:[5]
Valuing the clients: Clients are the reason why lawyers exist. Therefore, they deserve complete attention of the lawyers. Without clients, no lawyer would have a job. The clients should be valued because if they aren’t, they will switch to some other lawyer who respects them and pays attention to them..
Treating colleagues with respect: A lawyer can’t work efficiently without the help of junior lawyers, paralegals and administrative staff. Therefore, they should be treated with respect and their work should be given recognition every now and then. For instance, if a lawyer doesn’t respect his subordinates and doesn’t give them the credit for their work, they won’t work happily which in turn will affect their efficiency.
Effective Communication: How a professional communicates is of great importance. For a lawyer his voice as per the situation is very important. Also, if a lawyer doesn’t let his subordinates express their point of views or give their feedback, he/she can’t be a successful lawyer.
Punctuality: A lawyer should always be on time. He should not make the judge or the client wait. Punctuality shows their respect towards them and their time. In a Court, a judge might not let you plead if you arrive late.
Dress Code: A lawyer always has to be in formals. A lawyer has to be dressed properly otherwise he won’t be considered a professional and no one wants a lawyer who is too casual with his work. For example, if a lawyer is wearing formal attire but with slippers, what kind of an impression is he going to make on the other party?
Attentive Listener: A lawyer should always know what’s happening around him. A slight attention can play a big role when it comes to fighting the cases in the court. Like, the lawyer who is paying attention to his opponent lawyer would surely be able to counter him, better as compared to the one who is distracted.
Politeness Pays : The use of words like ‘Please’ and ‘Thank You’ portrays a person as gentle and well mannered. No one likes a person who doesn’t give recognition to someone’s kind gesture by a ‘thank you’. So, in such a profession, words like Please and Thank You hold a strong place.
Acceptance of mistakes: A lawyer must be apologetic and not adamant. He should be willing to accept his mistakes. A lawyer can’t be successful if he has an attitude of ‘I can never be wrong’. Accepting your faults and trying to improve upon them is how one becomes better. Also, for instance, if a lawyer uses language which isn’t appreciated in the court, he must apologize or he can even be held for contempt of the court.
GOOD LAWYER AND SUCCESSFUL LAWYER – BOTH ARE NOT ALWAYS THE SAME
It is a general theory that a good lawyer would also be successful lawyer. But practically it’s not true. There are different factors that affect the success in legal profession. Legal profession requires may qualities and skill and the person who uses all such qualities and skills at the best know as successful lawyer.
The lawyer may be good at remembering laws and cases but is not good a presenting it can’t make up to successful position. Some may carry strong analytical and advocacy skills and also the ability to communicate it in proper manner but again can’t make it to the limit of being successful because of their attitude and other professional etiquettes. Sometimes even after having all the skill a person may just remain a good lawyer and not a successful lawyer because he may not have the skills of understanding clients point, object.
In the same way it is also not necessary that a successful lawyer is a good lawyer. But make his work to success with the help of good team work.
A successful lawyer after the above analysis must contain strong analytical and advocacy skill. Good team work and support, passion in the particular area of law, command on advice and way of dealing with client of different nature differently and to understand the clients object. Some successful lawyers are also capable of convincing the clients in win-win state which is a very impossible work to achieve. These qualities create a good demarcation between good and successful lawyer.
CONCLUSION
This is not an exhaustive list. Other than all this there are many other general skills that are required by lawyers like adaptability, time management, leadership skills and effective stress management. Overall, we can say that a sum of all these qualities is required to be a successful lawyer. Nobody is born with all these qualities but they can surely be developed to be successful. In other words what we need is the correct attitude in life- being positive, being open to learning and believing in oneself is what would be the deciding factor as to who would be more successful among lawyers having the same set of hard skills. A successful lawyer needs willingness, passion skills, quality and time to invest to achieve success.
References
- The Twelve Principles of the Highly Effective Lawyer – By David T. Link
- “A Whole New Way of Life”: The D.C. Bar Lawyer Counseling Program
- How to Succeed as a Lawyer – By ROLAND BOYD of McKinney
- How to Become a Successful Lawyer – By Roshan Tolani – Law Crossing U.K.
[1] “A Whole new way of life” : The D.C. Bar Lawyer Counselling Program – Steve Barrett, Editor
[2] “successful lawyers” : PBI Town Hall year 2015.
[3] “Personal quality of a lawyer” – by Jeffrey Joyner
[4] The Twelve Principles of the Highly Effective Lawyer By David T. Link
[5] How to Become a Successful Lawyer – [By Roshan Tolani]
