The Complete Lawyer

Good communication skills are vital to a successful, rewarding practice. You need to communicate well with your clients, staff, partners, associates, other lawyers, and vendors. Improving your communication skills will let you express yourself with more confidence; more confidence will help you attract more clients and influence your peers and referral sources.

Master good communication and your practice will be more enjoyable. If you are communicating well with people, they will trust and like you, and that will make it easier to like—and enjoy helping—them. Your practice will also be more profitable because clients will be more likely to pay your bill.

Great legal communicators excel at seven key skills.

Don’t Neglect Verbal Communication

Don’t grow too dependent on email. Some things, such as bad news, are best handled by picking up the phone or by giving it in person. Negotiations are more likely to be successful when handled by phone. Discussing a problem verbally with a client gives you the forum to engage in the other six communication skills, which will help you maintain the client’s trust.

Let’s say you find yourself avoiding making a phone call to let a client know that a matter will not be completed by the promised date. As soon as you know, pick up the phone and talk to the client. Confident, competent lawyers handle problems through honest, prompt communication.

It is important to know how much to talk. If you dominate the conversation by talking too much, you do not leave room for listening, learning, or understanding. On the other hand, if you’re naturally quiet or introverted, make sure that you don’t talk too little.

Polish Your Listening Skills

Good listening skills are crucial for effective legal communication. When clients are listened to, they feel understood and trust you more. To connect with your clients and others, and to have them experience you as an effective lawyer, polish your listening skills.

Since lawyers are smart, we often anticipate what is going to be said and don’t feel the need to listen carefully. But when we really listen to a client, we can hear levels of communication that may deepen our understanding of the client’s problem.

To improve your listening:

• Be careful not to interrupt
• Avoid rehearsing answers while the other person is talking
• Look for the feelings that underlie the person’s comments
• Don’t worry about controlling the conversation—or demonstrating your intelligence—by giving an answer before you have fully heard the question
• Let go of being uncomfortable as you listen to your client’s feelings. Good listening skills encompass the ability to remain silent and to heed your intuition

Offer Sound Counsel

Don’t hold back on giving advice—business as well as legal. You’ve earned the trust of your clients, and they come to you for your opinion on what they should do. To help them take action, tell them what you think about their situation.

Be Open

Let go of making assumptions. Be open to the possibility that you do not have a complete grasp of your client’s problem before he or she explains it. You can’t solve a problem before you understand it.

Being open also includes being able to come up with many different ways to look at a problem. Creatively consider different options, ideas, strategies, and courses of action.

Be Curious

When we ask questions, we convey our interest. Being curious about someone helps us engage with and validate that person. Questions also give us the opportunity to really understand what is going on with the person—a factor in delivering sound legal advice.

Asking powerful questions may also deepen the individual’s awareness of his or her problem, an added bonus in helping a client who has come to you for help. Thought-provoking questions are open-ended and not leading. They begin with “What” or “How,” rather than “Why.”

It’s important not to help clients by giving them the answer you think appropriate. Instead, wait to hear what they come up with. The originality of their answers may surprise you.

Impart Value To What You Say

Since most lawyers bill their time, make sure that your clients will value your communication. Be clear and succinct so you will be easily understood.

Consider the result you hope to achieve at the end of the conversation, and the value of that result. Then, plan what you are going to say. If possible, rehearse out loud; having a script can also be helpful. But because conversations do not often go as planned, anticipate problems and prepare to address them.

Be Persuasive

To be successful, a lawyer must be persuasive. Persuasion is important when negotiating, arguing before judges and juries, hiring outstanding staff, and responding to client requests for a proposal. Persuasion is rooted in inquisitiveness and openness; you need to understand your audience’s thoughts and beliefs so that you can align your arguments accordingly.

When possible, conduct your important discussions when you are feeling most confident. Be calm, prepared, and detached. Do not let uncontrolled emotions run the conversation.

The practice of law is highly dependent on good communication skills, especially persuasive verbal skills. Mastering these seven keys will allow you to connect with your clients in a more meaningful way and solve problems more effectively. You will have more successful presentations and depositions. Even interactions with your staff will be improved.