Developing Lawyers’ “Soft Skills”—A Challenge for the New Era in Legal Services
Published in Law Practice Today Magazine of the ABA.
The economy is recovering. Law firm business is back (sort of). But the world has changed, and our industry along with it. Lawyers have to be better and do more to succeed in this evolving environment. Better legal skills? That was always a goal of professional development, and continues to be. Great lawyering has come to be expected; it is the price of entry. Our firm, and most successful law firms, have ongoing educational programs to improve and maintain superior legal skills. Drafting skills, oral advocacy skills, trial skills…they are all very important. Beyond those, much more emphasis is required today on the “soft skills.”
These important skills, which include communications, relationship building, and service orientation, are paramount to an attorney continuing to have an engaging and successful career. It is astounding that they are not taught in law school, and that fact only serves to increase the responsibilities of law firms to create and implement training initiatives that focus on developing an attorney’s service-oriented skills. Why is learning how to communicate with clients so important? Because clients are demanding it.
To Read More: Developing soft skills – Law Practice Today – ABA
*Update: I no longer use the term “soft skills”, as I find that they are too important in this day and age to be marginalized in that way. I now refer to them as “money making skills”. If you want to keep your lights on in the building, I suggest training the attorneys in these very necessary skillsets. Interestingly, as soon as I started using the term “Money Making Skills”, attorneys started sitting up and taking notice.
