Top 5 Soft Skills for a Successful Law Career

Soft skills are the abilities and professional talents that make a good lawyer into a great one, complementing finely honed legal expertise and ensuring positive working relationships.

The list of soft skills that are beneficial in the legal sector is exhaustive but there are a few that come up time and again as skills which are highly prized by law firms, clients and lawyers alike.

These skills help lawyers connect with clients and colleagues in a constructive manner, find effective ways to overcome problems and inspire others.

The following soft skills are our top five for a successful law career…

1. Leadership Skills

Leadership qualities are beneficial, no matter what industry you work within or at what level, but for lawyers, leadership qualities are essential.

Good leadership skills give lawyers the ability to confidently respond to a client’s changing needs, helps to establish credibility, ensure confidence, and guarantees the drive and determination needed to practice law at every level.

Effective leaders know how to inspire, motivate and empower those around them, encouraging a stretching of potential and accomplishment of goals.

Creative Word Training can help you to improve your leadership skills with the following courses:

Leading the Multi Generational Law Firm

How to Act Like a Leader

Leadership Styles and Qualities

Mindful Leadership – Fit to Lead Mindfulness Dubai

2. Resilience

The ability to ‘bounce back’, remaining positive and flexible are key skills for lawyers no matter what the economic, social or political climate looks like, but over the last year (and the Covid-19 pandemic), resilience has become more vital than ever.

Life is always changing, and frequently challenging, so learning how to adapt to change, maintain motivation and remain optimistic is of upmost importance if we wish to be successful.

Lawyers especially need to be highly resilient in their work. Dealing with successful clients, negotiating high-end deals, influencing decision makers, and supporting colleagues all require continual energy, enthusiasm and passion. There is no place for pessimism,

At Creative Word, we understand the value of resilience and have created several courses designed specifically to teach resilience and adaptability. These courses are delivered and designed by expert trainers with a wealth of legal knowledge.

We offer the following training courses:

Resilience for Times of Change and Challenge

Stress at Work

Reduce your Risks by Finding your Failure Modes

3. Communication Skills

Communication is such a key part of a lawyer’s repertoire of skills because law is built upon a foundation of paperwork, conversations, correspondence and collaboration.

Good communication skills don’t just include knowing the right thing to say in a plethora of situations, it also means knowing when to stop talking and start listening.

Understanding comes from active listening and in order to truly understand your clients you must listen to what they tell you, process that information, then effectively explain their options using terminology they are familiar with.

Similarly, communicating with colleagues in a clear, concise way ensures there is no room for misunderstandings or confusion, and encourages genuine collaboration.

Trust, influence, openness, motivation and support are all affected by the quality of communication and the way they are delivered. If clients and colleagues find your communication skills lacking, they won’t look to you for future partnerships.

Professional communication training can help to improve areas such as, effective presentations, communicating in a multicultural environment and communicating to influence.

4. Critical Thinking

The best lawyers seem to have an innate ability to find effective (often simple) solutions for complicated problems.

This is because they are able to think productively, independently, creatively and flexibly – they are mindful of their thoughts, feeling and emotions, and can step away from these to be present in the moment, analyse the issues and allow the mental freedom to make an informed, rational choice.

Those lawyers who posses highly developed critical thinking skills often are emotional intelligent, authentic, likeable people who are proactive and optimistic.

Critical thinking is a skill that can be taught and advanced. Training courses that teach problem solving, process mapping, decision making and critical processing skills are helpful for improving techniques, increasing mindfulness and highlighting alternative perspectives and options.

5. Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand and identify with the emotions of other people and our own response generated from that understanding.

Lawyers must understand the views and perspectives of their clients and colleagues in order to assist them to the best of their ability, so having empathic tendencies will make this process easier.

Empathy can be enhanced with training so Creative Word Training courses such as, cultural intelligence, improving group dynamics, and managing difficult client situations, can help you become more aware of your own and other’s feelings.

If you would like more information on any of our courses, please contact us here. Alternatively, check out our legal courses here which are operated in partnership with Dubai Legal Affairs Department.