Essential Soft Skills for Lawyers (eBook)

Acknowledgements 7

I. Introduction 9

II. What do we mean by ‘soft skills?’ 11

1. Technical legal and technology skills 11

2. Is it practical intelligence? 12

3. Is it commerciality? 12

4. Are they emotional or people skills? 12

5. Are they attributes? 14

III. The importance of soft skills for lawyers 15

1. World Economic Forum’s Future of Work report 15

2. Management experts 16

3. Client perspective 17

4. Solicitors Regulation Authority 17

5. Legal sector commentators 18

6. Commercial and trusted advisers 20

7. T-shaped lawyers 24

8. O-shaped lawyers 25

9. The Delta Model 25

IV. Emotional intelligence for lawyers 27

1. What is emotional intelligence? 28

1.1 Self-awareness and personality assessments 28
1.2 Self-management 30
1.3 Social awareness and empathy 31
1.4 Relationship management 32
1.5 Being politically astute 32

2. Client views on emotional intelligence in lawyers 34

3. The link between confidence and perfectionism 36

4. Stress, resilience and wellbeing 37

5. Decision making 40

6. High-performance environment 41

V. Methods of developing lawyer soft skills 43

1. Approaches to training and development 44

1.1 Dedicated learning and development function 44
1.2 Training academies 48
1.3 External training suppliers 48
1.4 Self-managed learning 49
1.5 Best practice 52
1.6 On-the-job training 52
1.7 Case studies and scenario analysis 52
1.8 Peer learning 53
1.9 Secondments and shadowing 53
1.10 Part-time (voluntary) roles 53
1.11 Digital training and e-learning 54
1.12 Role models 58
1.13 Feedback 58
1.14 Coaching and mentoring 59

2. Law Society research 61

3. How to promote learning and different learning styles 62

3.1 Fear of change 62
3.2 Fixed and growth mind-set 63
3.3 Adaptive third 63
3.4 Change management 63
3.5 Learning theory and process 63
3.6 Learning styles 65
3.7 Reflection 66
3.8 Retention 66
3.9 Motivation to learn 68

4. Competency frameworks 68

5. Measuring the effectiveness of training 71

6. Awards for soft skills development 73

VI. The range of soft skills required by lawyers 75

1. Essential soft skills for lawyers 75

2. Lawyer qualities and attributes 78

VII. Five essential soft skills for lawyers 81

1. Personal skills 81

1.1 Goal setting 81
1.2 Making an impact, messaging and personal brand 87
1.3 Creativity 89

2. Communication skills 93

2.1 Non-verbal communication 95
2.2 Active listening 98
2.3 Storytelling 102

3. Building relationships 105

3.1 A model of business relationships 106
3.2 Understanding different types of relationships and how they are formed 107
3.3 Creating rapport and trust 112
3.4 Navigating difference and conflict 122

4. Leadership – managing a team 126

4.1 Delegation 128
4.2 Coaching 133
4.3 Feedback 140

5. Business development – marketing, selling and referrer management 144

5.1 What is business development? 145
5.2 Networking 148
5.3 Presenting and performing 153
5.4 Selling 155

VIII. Soft skills in other professions 159

1. Solicitors Regulation Authority 159

1.1 Core competencies 159
1.2 Professional Skills Course 160
1.3 Practice Skills Standards 160

2. Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales 160

3. Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors 162

IX. Concluding observations 165

X. Signposts to other learning resources 171

1. Recommended books 172

2. Training organisations 178

Appendix I. Illustrative competency dictionary and framework 179

Appendix II. Example RICS mandatory competency – communications and negotiation 181

Notes 183

About the author 189

About Globe Law and Business 191