Millions of lawyers graduate from law schools annually, but few of them have the ability to work in the legal profession, because the legal profession is not taught only in law schools, but extends to years after graduation. During these years, the lawyer must master various skills.
It is not enough for a professional lawyer to learn the law and memorise the texts of the articles. Rather, every professional lawyer must learn many skills and possess many personal qualities that make him a professional lawyer.
The most important of these are the following:
1- Oral communication:
Language is one of the most basic and fundamental tools of the legal profession, and the legal professional must understand and master the following:
- Conveying and communicating information in a concise manner with logical consistency.
- Communicate persuasively.
- Championing and supporting the positions and issues of public opinion.
- Mastering legal terminology.
- Develop listening skills with passion and listening.
2- Written Communication:
Writing in all its forms, from writing simple correspondence and letters to writing and drafting complex legal documents, is an integral part of the legal professional nature. The legal professional must observe the following:
- Mastering the skills of high writing style in addition to the technical aspects of various topics.
- Mastering the basic grammatical and spelling rules.
- Skills of drafting the following legal documents: petitions, abstracts, internal memos, decisions, legal agreements.
3- Customer Service:
In industries that focus on customer service, its professionals do not neglect honesty, adequate technical ability, as well as taking responsibility towards customers. In addition, the legal professional is required to master the following:
- Attracting and retaining clients skills.
- Customer service skills.
- Effective communication skills with clients.
4- Analytical and reasoning skills:
Legal professionals must review and digest huge amounts of accurate and complex information effectively and efficiently. Such as legal analysis and logical thinking skills, including:
- Review complex documents, and extract and draw the necessary conclusions from them. In addition to the excellent ability to communicate and communicate well with the various legal authorities.
- Develop logical thinking and master organisation and problem-solving skills.
- The ability to structure, evaluate, arrange and categorise arguments.
- Draw conclusions and deductions using inductive and deductive reasoning.
5- Legal Research:
Reading and researching legal concepts, reviewing judicial precedents, various rulings, laws and regulations, and other information is in itself an important legal skill that a legal professional must take into account and take into account the following:
- Mastering legal research skills.
- Know how to define and analyse legal powers.
- Mastering the skill of the art of legal interpretation.
- Knowledge and mastery of the ability to quote the appropriate legal.
- Proficiency in search software and its applications, including Internet search.
6- Technology:
The legal nature has changed dramatically thanks to technology and it has become an integral part of all the different legal tasks. In order for the professional legal professional to continue to be effective and efficient in performing his duties, he must observe the following:
- Proficiency in a variety of word processing software, visual presentations, time billing software, and various programming applications.
- Proficiency in basic communications technology, including: e-mails, voice messages, video conferencing, and related technology.
- Familiarity with technological and electronic discovery, litigation support and documentation, document management and filing.
- Mastering legal research programs, and searching through the Internet.
- Develop the skill of wise and optimal use of technology for different business needs.
7- Knowledge of substantive law and legal procedures:
All legal professionals, even those at the beginning of their professional career, must know the basics of substantive law and legal procedures. Legal professionals should have general knowledge of:
- Local, state, and federal jurisdictions.
- Response times and sufficient deadlines for submission of defences and documents.
- The basic principles of law in the areas of practice in which they work.
- Related legal terms.
8- Time management:
One of the professional professional methods in relation to the business model is what is called (billable hours), which means wages for the number of working hours, which links achieving financial gains for legal companies in return for productivity “working hours”. In addition to managing large workloads. Therefore, professionals of the profession must develop the following:
- Learn and master the best multitasking skills.
- Developing professional ethics.
- The ability to reconcile and harmonise work tasks that are given priority and utmost importance.
9- Organisation:
To manage large amounts of documents and data, legal professionals must develop their skills for the best developmental and organisational skills, including:
- The ability to sort, arrange and manage large amounts of data, documents, directories, etc.
- The ability to define goals (the required information), index them, and create an effective organisational structure drawn from large amounts of irrelevant data and information.
- The ability to use technical applications that help manage case-related data.
10- Teamwork:
Legal professionals do not do well without ancillary support. Even those professionals working on their own need secretarial work and administrative support team work as a collaborative team to facilitate the work of the lawyer and expert to provide the best legal services to clients as a team. In addition, it often does not meet the needs of clients with the skills of a single lawyer, as he needs a team of distinguished practitioners to provide the necessary services for their projects. This is what makes teamwork so important to legal professionals. The most important teamwork skills include:
- Collaborate with the work team to achieve a common goal.
- Coordinating and sharing information and exchanging knowledge among the work team.
- Refine and refine relationships with colleagues, employees, customers, experts, suppliers, and others.
- Effective and influential attendance of events, events, conferences and meetings.