A lawyer is never done learning.

We start from law schools and keep learning throughout our lives. We learn the laws, how to interpret them, how to use them in arguments, counter them and more. The law keeps getting updated or reinterpreted, so the lawyer can never afford to stop learning. They need to be on the top of the game.

I had no clue how little law or anything else I knew about practice of law when I graduated. 5 years later, I still get shocked by how much is there to learn!

The skill sets required for lawyers have also evolved with time. Initially, contract drafting was simple. But with time, the requirements for clients and parties have evolved. From sole proprietorship and partnerships to public companies, private companies and limited liability partnerships, the structure of companies have changed, and so have their duties and liabilities.

Even governance of these corporate bodies change year after year, and from simple gradually become extremely complex. That’s good news because it means lawyers will never run out of highly paid work. It is also bad news because you can’t just be the friendly simpleton law graduate – you have to continually upgrade your skills as a lawyer.

There is also a change in dispute resolutions. From litigation, parties are now opting for alternative dispute resolution like arbitration and mediation. This is mostly due to the fact that the in litigation disputes can get dragged out for years and can become quite expensive. In comparison, arbitration or mediation take less time for resolution, therefore cost much less. At least that is what conventional knowledge says.

Not necessarily though. In many cases, it is cheaper and faster to go to court than to go for arbitration. Top lawyers often have to decide, even at contract drafting stage, whether it will be better to choose arbitration, and if yes, then what kind of arbitration.

The essential skill sets for lawyers have seen a shift in recent times.

For instance, when I was in high school, I’d decided to be a litigation lawyer. By the time I had graduated law school, I was extensively exposed to the world of corporate laws. Up until my fourth year of law school, I had only interned with litigation lawyers in different forums. It was in the fourth year that I realised I need to gain some experience in a law firm or in-house role. Then I interned in a law firm dealing with copyright-related matters.

Eventually, I went on to work with an entertainment and media company where my work had little to do with what I had learnt and more with things I did not, like contract review, drafting, dispute resolution and more. There was a constant learning curve and if you did not meet it, then the job would not be done. So, I had to put in extra time just to learn the nuances of different kinds of contracts, their implications, restrictions, etc.

The more I delved into the work, the more learning was required, as I had to support and advice the various departments regarding the legal parameters in which they could operate and perform their day-to-day functions. This is a common phenomenon for in-house lawyers.

In case of lawyers working with law firms, they have different clients with different requirements and queries which necessitates them to be on top of their game.

However, many lawyers tend to think that all they need to know to be a good lawyer is the legal provision. What a grave and commonplace mistake that is.

There are skills that are equally if not more important to learn. Law you can still find in books, ask a senior or colleague about, and gradually learn by observing others. The skills I am talking about are much harder to learn.

This is why I insist that when our course R&D teams build online law courses, they must take into account how to teach these skills too. You will be half a lawyer if you don’t, and half a lawyer doesn’t do very well out there in the wilderness.

# Handling the client

One of the most important skills for a lawyer to learn is how to handle their client and extract the relevant information from them.  

Client management is acquired through hands-on experience. The more clients you handle, the more you learn about sifting through the information. In any setting, litigation or corporate, client briefing is quintessential.

You can also learn it from simulation exercises, which we extensively rely on.

If you don’t understand what is the client’s issues or requirements, you cannot provide the necessary remedies. For instance, one of my first client interaction was a few months into my first job. The client was seeking a divorce from her husband who was serving a prison sentence at the time for a fraud case. The client had come with her father and two-year-old son. Before the client could speak, the father of the client started telling us about the matter and what they wanted. There was a lot of unnecessary information, personal opinions and comments from his end.

As lawyers, we need to display a certain amount of empathy towards the client, but remain dispassionate in order to provide a legal solution to their problem. So, I gave the child some pen and paper to doodle and asked the client’s father to babysit him, while I took the client to another cubicle. The client then narrated her version of the issue. I had to ask questions which would help us build a case in her favour. The ambit of the questions was defined in such a manner.

Sometimes the clients give too much information, or too little. Sometimes they hide certain relevant facts which needs to be disclosed to the lawyer. There are times when the client has the relevant information, but has not divulged to the lawyer as they do not comprehend the importance of the same. The lawyers need to develop their skill to extract the relevant information by asking relevant questions while ensuring that their client does not get agitated or uncomfortable.  

The skill to handle the client and extract relevant information becomes indispensable in the long run.

Also, sometimes the client gives you an important piece of information which you completely fail to appreciate. That is also a grave danger.

Let us give you an example from our course on how we can teach such a skill. Let’s say you have been instructed by Adani to acquire a small robotics startup. They have given you a bunch of documents by email with respect to the deal so that you can get started. Now you have a call with the CEO before you commence work. What are the questions you are going to ask in the call? Prepare a list of questions.

Once you submit the list of questions, we will give you feedback. Did you miss any important angles? Are you asking too many irrelevant questions?

This brief example (the actual exercise is far more elaborate) is from our M&A, Institutional Finance and Investment Laws course.

# Contract Drafting

In this day and age, contract drafting is an essential skill set. Check out any job profile for a corporate law job. This will be among the most desired skill sets in a candidate. Litigators often make their ends meet thanks to contracts, and most of their high paid work may involve disputes over contracts.

Hence, all lawyers must love contracts and learn how to draft them.

Contract drafting is a skill which is generally not taught in law schools. We gain the theoretical knowledge about the components of contracts and its essentials. But, unless we start working with a law firm or a company, this skill set is not developed or even asked for.

In my initial years I was working in litigation. So my drafting skills were limited to applications, complaints, plaints, petitions, notices, etc. So when I decided that it was time to switch lanes into corporate, I realised that I need experience in contract drafting. To that end, I interned with a company for about four months and learnt how to draft various kinds of contracts. However, I can’t say it was either easy or very successful because even after 4 months I learned precisely little.

There are different kinds of contracts a lawyer must know how to draft, like shareholders agreement, licensing agreement, rent agreement, memorandum of understanding, software licensing agreement, distribution agreement, cloud service agreement, etc.

The idea was to bridge the gap in my learning. At that time, there were not many options to gain practical knowledge of contracts, other than doing hands-on work. This is why I am very excited about and strongly recommend this online contract drafting course available which focuses on the development of both theoretical and practical skills. I wish we had such a course when we were in college!

Click here for free materials on contract drafting course!

# Keeping up with the changing laws

The laws keep getting amended, reinterpreted, read into, struck down or repealed. Therefore, as lawyers, we must keep ourselves updated with the ongoing cases, their developments and impact on the client or company. This helps the lawyers to take necessary action with respect to strategy, advise and generally protecting the client’s interests.

For instance, recently in a matter between IPRS and Vodafone for infringement of copyright with respect musical compositions and lyrics of the songs within its repertoire, the Calcutta High Court held that, “A telecom company ideally would be required to obtain licenses now from IPRS as the plaintiff has rights over ‘music and lyrics’. Now that a society is in place to take care of the musicians, composers and lyricists, the rights of the members of the plaintiff are required to be protected”.

Vodafone claimed that they had agreements with the owners of sound recordings, therefore they didn’t require a separate license from IPRS. Vodafone has been directed by the court o deposit a sum of Rs. 2.5 crores to the credit of the suit.

This judgment will have a huge impact on owners of the sound recordings, the royalties payable to the relevant parties, i.e., producers, music composers, and lyricists. So as a media and entertainment lawyer will have to keep a close eye on the development of this case in order to strategise, advise and protect their clients accordingly. Now if you had done our course on Media and Entertainment Laws, you will not only learn about this but also learn how to keep yourself updated with the rapidly changing law with ease.

It is of the utmost importance for lawyers to keep themselves updated with respect to the ever-evolving laws.

We teach you in our courses how to build systems that keep you updated effortlessly. This should very much be part of training in law colleges, but unfortunately that does not happen. You face the challenge of learning to keep yourself updated only when you graduate, start practicing, and hit barriers that you do not like.

Don’t wait for that. The early bird catches the worm. Let us show you how you can stay updated on your chosen area of law, the area in which you wish to build serious expertise that will pay off in the legal marketplace.

# Developing relevant business understanding and domain knowledge

Just knowing the laws is not enough for the lawyers. They need to know and understand the business of their clients or company, too. You will see every successful commercial lawyer introducing themselves as “I am not just a lawyer, but I understand your business.” This is what matters today.

aws are numerous and no one lawyer knows all of them. They study the basics of a variety of laws, but they develop their expertise in a specific domain. You would not go to a neurosurgeon for a dental ailment or an oncologist for a mental health-related ailment. Similarly, a real estate lawyer should not be the first choice for a murder trial, or, a merger and acquisition lawyer for a divorce matter. This is not only because applicable legal provisions are different. This is also because industry knowledge matters.

A sophisticated client will go much deeper. Lawyers with experience of financing power projects will be preferred when new power projects are to be financed, just like those with extensive experience of financing aircrafts will be preferred for financing aircrafts. This is why experience matters massively in legal industry.

Somebody can read up all the laws that apply both to financing of aircrafts and power projects in a week. But it takes a long time to develop understanding of the power plant or distribution business, or aircraft leasing. These things make a huge difference. While the set of applicable laws may be exact same, the business fundamentals and practices are different, and a lawyer who don’t know enough will be lost, and intentionally misled by the other side.

How do you acquire such industry specific business knowledge? It is not exactly easy. This is in fact one of the hardest aspects of becoming a good lawyer. However, in all our courses, we will give you a good foundation with respect to this.

We help our students to develop their specialised domain knowledge through a series of weekly exercises as well as our material. While preparing our course material, we do not only include legal aspects, but there is a sharp focus on domain knowledge and business understanding. Each exercise addresses various aspects of doing business, and are not mere legal questions. This is how we force you to think like a business person again and again.

Let me give you some examples.

For a media lawyer or a technology lawyer, it is not sufficient to know the laws. They need to know the area of business they are working in, the common business parlance, industry practices, revenue models, common pitfalls, the technology itself and more. This is because they need to be able to identify, anticipate the requirements of the client or company and help them develop strategies in order to overcome the potential obstacles.

For instance, if a technology lawyer is working on a product licensing contract, he/she needs to understand the product, its utility, function, possible applications, potential risks, etc. in order to provide suitable measures in the licensing contract.

If the product is a music sharing application, then the both the media and technology lawyer must understand how the application works in the first place. Only then they will be able to gauge what kind of terms and conditions to put in place. A media lawyer might be more focused on nature of content, how the content is being used, and the rights and obligations thereof. Whereas, a technology lawyer would be more interested in the mode of content sharing, the functioning of the application, the manner in which the application can be possibly used, and more. Both lawyers need to sit with their marketing, sales, technology teams in order to understand the requirements of the company and users.

# Networking

This is one skill that I did not realise was of the utmost importance for any profession, especially lawyers.

I started out as the naive, idealistic fresher who did not want to take referrals or help from anyone to get the job. Soon I realised that a referral is merely to get your foot in the door. Then there are multiple rounds of interviews and performance on the job which is all on the candidate’s abilities.

Networking is an art. It is important to have a network of people and advisable to reach out to them from time to time. One cannot simply reach out to a person in the network and ask for a favour or a job. You must have a clear goal in mind before reaching out to someone.

What do you want from this person? Do you want a referral or a job itself? What kind of job? Do you have the necessary qualifications? Do you have the requisite skill sets? Do you have anything which sets you apart from the countless others who have reached out to this person so far? And then the most important question of all.

What is in it for the person in question? What do they gain from this interaction?

Before approaching someone from your network, the best shot is to do a little research and figure out where you can add value to the other person or the organisation. The point is not to go empty-handed. Go with a plan or a strategy which adds value to them. Make yourself stand out by making an offer of value in return for your ask.

This is why we ensure that each of our courses have some networking exercises towards the end. It’s not as difficult as it seems when you have proper guidance.

Go acquire and imbibe these essential skill sets for a successful legal career!

 

Good luck.