Growing personally and professionally in the legal profession necessitates the use of a number of tactics that are seen to be vital for making the most of the profession.
A set of abilities that any lawyer should develop throughout the course of his profession and that he has been learning since entering university.
However, on this learning path, it is best to understand how to recognize these social and technical abilities as soon as possible in order to maximize their capability.
Many of them are assumed to be inherent in humans, but they have been left behind along the road, and the moment has come to give them the prominence that would prompt change.
This is the opinion of lawyer and author scar Fernández de León, who has just published in Ecuador the book ’51 skills to be a lawyer, in which he formulates those skills that he considers critical to teaching every lawyer how to take advantage of the qualities and competencies that allow him to be more effective and intelligent in his work.
Do you follow all of them? Let’s discuss with the seven steps to success.
Table of Contents
7 Steps That Leads To The Success
To let you know that In his book, Fernández de León, as if it were a personal training program, identifies seven groupings of abilities that a lawyer should assess to determine the amount to which he possesses them in his day-to-day practice.
So it’s time to go over the most important ones.
1. General skills
They are the abilities that are recommended for everyone. Its possession is socially considered as a good and handy component of the individual, as it will promote the personal and labor progress of people who put it into practice:
“The lawyer must be equipped with fundamental talents such as perseverance, discipline, and industriousness.
On the other hand, prudence, patience, calmness, and self-control are required for contact with third parties, and, ultimately, honesty and sincerity serve as an informing principle of the preceding “.
2. Professional skills
Those that every lawyer actively employs in his career as necessary instruments for the advancement of their practice.
As a result, the following skills are required to practice law: legal counsel, mediation and negotiation, and, lastly, court defense. Fernández de León notes, among other things, the following:
“On the one hand, there are general skills related to oral and written communication, which imply intelligence, imagination, analytical and abstraction capacity, and mental adaptation.”
It is also beneficial to improve one’s capacity to research and understand the most cutting-edge information technology on the market.
Then we must have skills to counsel our clients (listening, empathy, focus); have a vocation to negotiate, and know how to intervene in public, which would suggest oratory, master verbal and nonverbal language, and have a strong tolerance for frustration at critical moments.”
3. Deontological abilities/skills
They are necessary for professional conceptualization: “We could divide them into two categories: those derived from the privileged status that informs the performance of our function and the main obligations in their performance
And those derived from rules that are a faithful reflection of professional tradition and culture and nourish our Code of Ethics.
Independence, diligence, loyalty, responsibility, and anything else that stems from our professional status are among them.”
4. Interpersonal Skills
The lawyer works in an environment that requires him to connect with people who have quite different perspectives: “He initially intervenes with clients in order to capture them.
Once he has obtained it, he journeys with them down the long path of case resolution and, of course, retention.
He will work with the other legal operators to persuade and convince them of the merits of our argumentation (judges) or to negotiate or operate as a team (other lawyers).
A good lawyer, for example, the personal injury attorneys will be personable, understand communication strategies, be outgoing, and understand how to interact with others in any situation.
5. Business Skills
“As a result, having access to and continuing to gain abilities in corporate direction, management, and organization is unavoidable.
“Law firms must be managed like actual businesses, using business systems, procedures, and tools, so that the lawyer can lead, organize, plan, and govern his business: “As a result, having access to and continuing to gain abilities in corporate direction, management, and organization is unavoidable.”
In this sector, the lawyer must be a strong strategist, have leadership qualities, be proactive, be able to manage, organize, and plan time, master teamwork skills, delegate, and speak multiple languages.”
6. Business Skills
Every lawyer must understand the significance of acquiring and retaining clients for the establishment and growth of professional companies.
It is vital that you understand the function that these competencies and skills will play in your own professional development, whether as an individual or within the professional hierarchy of the firm: “As commercial competencies are obtained via knowledge and application, the lawyer must be schooled in marketing strategies.”
Likewise, you must understand the strategies of customer service, needed to generate your contentment through an amazing and quality service”.
7. Emotional intelligence
The profession of lawyer necessitates psychological knowledge and comprehension by individuals who can maintain a link with the human behavior of the people with whom they will have to operate.
Without a doubt, the human aspect is a vital component of the legal profession with a constant impact:
“Psychological knowledge has numerous uses in our activity, both to govern our performance and to engage with other parties.”
In terms of employment, we may highlight the capacity for positive thinking, resistance to frustration, the use of visualization techniques, and the use of all the tools that allow us to be with ourselves, learn to know ourselves, and obtain the long-awaited mental and physical relaxation.
A Book That Holds A Promise
Fernández de León introduced this idea of individualized learning for lawyers in a book that was just released in Ecuador.
A trip to the Latin American country has resulted in 437 pages of advice, anecdotes, and recommendations to put into practice and be the best lawyer the profession deserves: “Last year, I was fortunate enough to give a lecture on litigation techniques in Quito (Ecuador) by the hand of INSELEG, an entity dedicated to the training of jurists.”
“During the break, I met Lus Cevallos, a bookseller who had an exhibition of books exhibited; we started talking, we got along, and he managed to obtain me the assurance that he would publish a book with them,” reveals its author, who assures that the printed publication would be available in Spain soon.
Now that you’ve transferred all of these skills to the role, the question is whether or not lawyers have these skills developed. What abilities can they ‘limp’ further? “I believe they all need consistent and progressive devotion because they are all critical to their success. Now, perhaps we hobble on the business, commercial, and emotional fronts, and all, all, are critical to managing your office, clientele, and other legal operators “.
