PEOPLE SKILLS ARE AS IMPORTANT AS LEGAL SKILLS - Heying
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August 24, 2017

PEOPLE SKILLS ARE AS IMPORTANT AS LEGAL SKILLS

In a lawyer role, people are required to interact with a huge diversity of stakeholders from employers, partners and financial clients. Consider how many talented lawyers are out there and you will realize how a lawyer services his/her client can be a game changer in terms of ongoing client relationship. Poor people skills lead to poor service and most clients place a very high value on quality legal services.

When looking for a lawyer, clients are expecting:

 

  • Understanding of their business
  • Better Communications
  • No surprises
  • Prompt Billing
  • Greater Value
  • Security

 

However, when time is squeezed by huge workloads and client demands, it mutes lawyer`s people skills. The higher a lawyer`s workload is, the harder it is for him/her to slow down and know what the client is going through. We all know that sometimes people are hard to understand and the most critical thing that isn’t trained into lawyers is interpersonal flexibility. Since that is a core emotional intelligence skill, here is a list of some important people skills that every lawyer should work on:

  • Have a sense of humor
  • Ask about client’s work routine
  • Learn about their personal life (as appropriate)
  • Build trust
  • Accept people have weaknesses and sometimes they are emotional and unpredictable
  • Know what keeps your clients up at night
  • Ask what are their preferred manner for receiving updates

 

In today`s competitive marketplace, those skills are as important as how smart a lawyer is.