Three Traits of Top Lawyers

There are only so many (billable) hours in a lawyer’s day and with growing client expectations, the pressure to perform near-miracles can weigh heavily on legal minds and shoulders.

However, by approaching legal matters in a novel way and with the help of legal technology, it is possible to raise your game and reach the next level.

Below, you’ll find three traits that top lawyers share and practical tips on how to achieve them.

1. Precision

Law, by its very nature, is about precision, accuracy, and details.

A case which is missing a significant detail, or which lacks proper accuracy, has a less favourable outcome than one which has dotted all the ‘i’s and crossed all the ‘t’s.

Precision is vital, but the reality is that there is rarely time to physically check every minute detail by hand.

However, thanks to advances in legal technology over the last few years, it is now possible to automate mundane tasks, quickly glean useful insights into information which can assist your case and coordinate relevant research with colleagues.

Legal technology can help improve accuracy and ensure precision by:

• Mapping your own processes

• Identifying pinch points

• Drafting documents

• Legal Project management

• Refining research

• Electronic discovery

Using legal technology to keep ahead of the field and ensure you stay up to date with changes, advances, and recent rulings, gives improved precision and peace of mind for your clients, your firm and you.

2. Productivity

Productivity is essential if you want to keep your clients happy, but they don’t want to pay for hours of research – they want the right answer and they want it yesterday!

Obviously, this is impossible, but that doesn’t stop clients from expecting miracles, and to keep them satisfied, it’s essential to discover ways to speed up research, evaluate options and keep clients informed.

However, where there is a demand for increased speed and productivity, there is a risk of reduced precision (see point 1, above) – mistakes can be missed, alternative solutions overlooked, and client contact reduced.

So, how can productivity and precision be achieved?

Simply, by refining legal project management techniques and using technological tools designed to standardize and refine processes.

In this way, technology can:

• Automate and standardize documents

• Assist client communication (from emails and texts to website information and more)

• Automate billing

• Facilitate faster and more efficient research

• Track and measure analytics

• Aid document storage and accessibility

• Support and refine research using specialized research platforms

Finding the type of legal tech which is best suited to your firm means understanding what is available and how it works.

Typical business development and project management practices should be scrutinized and assessed, then evaluate technological options based on your requirements and select the best fit.

3. Poise

People rely on you, your expertise, and your talent to get the results they need so when the pressure is on, the one thing you must maintain, is your poise!

Clients expect you to be confident in your own decisions, assured of assessments and certain of your choices – if they can’t see and feel your confidence, they’ll lack faith in your abilities.

Communicate your vision clearly, explain strategies and offer reliable information, so that clients can follow procedures, check in for updates and understand what is happening now, and throughout the legal process.

Checking your work for errors, verifying information with colleagues, and being up to speed with current rulings and legislation, all help to give you confidence in your work and your decisions.

Clients can be confident in you, once you are truly confident in yourself.

Legal technology can help:

• Reduce errors

• Provide reliable and up to date information

• Refine drafting and documentation

• Reduce time spent poring over research

Here, at Creative Word Training, the biggest legal training provider in the GCC, our mission is to help lawyers realize their ambitions.

Information on our legal training courses can be found here, and further information regarding legal technology is available here.

Alternatively, if you’d like to speak to a member of the team, please contact us.