Skills are something that you can work on and develop over time. As they say: practice makes perfect! Here are a few that you should consider working on if you aspire to be a successful lawyer:
1) Good Communication
Lawyers must be orally articulate, have good written communication skills and also be good listeners. In order to argue convincingly in the courtroom before juries and judges, good public speaking skills are essential.
Lawyers must also be able to write clearly, persuasively and concisely, as they must produce a variety of legal documents.
But it’s not all about projection. To be able to analyse what clients tell them or follow a complex testimony, a lawyer must have good listening skills.
2) Judgment
The ability to draw reasonable, logical conclusions or assumptions from limited information is essential as a lawyer.
You must also be able to consider these judgements critically, so that you can anticipate potential areas of weakness in your argument that must be fortified against.
Similarly, you must be able to spot points of weakness in an oppositions argument. Decisiveness is also a part of judgement. There will be a lot of important judgement calls to make and little time for sitting on the fence.
3) Analytical
Both the study and practice of law involve absorbing large quantities of information, then having to distil it into something manageable and logical.
At times, there will be more than one reasonable conclusion, or more than one precedent applicable to resolving a situation.
A lawyer must therefore have the evaluative skills in order to choose which is the most suitable.
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