How To Become A Good Lawyer

Having attended court for many years and having the chance of meeting many good and bad lawyers, I find that the keys to being a sucessful lawyer are as follows:

COMMUNICATION SKILLS - Communication is the key to legal practice. You will have to communicate with your clients, Judges, witnesses, opposing attorneys etc. If you have good communication skills, your chances of success is greatly improved.

PEOPLE SKILLS - Next to communication skills is people skills. As you will have to deal with all types of people, this skills is extremely important. You must know how to deal with people. Dealing with clients, Judges, witnesses, opposing attorneys, court clerks, your office mates etc. Having good people skills get things done. You can persuade people to see things your way. Having good communication skills without people skills is like having just one leg. When you have good people skills in addition to good communication skills, you can negotiate your way around difficulties and solve problems. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes - with good people skills, you can persuade people to forgive your mistakes and help you fix it.
It is a reality that low level clerks at the courts can make or break a case in the court system. Judges are influenced by the clerks (their employees) which attorneys are jerks and which attorneys are nice and treat these attorneys accordingly. The impression you give, although should not be important, but unfortunately it is.

ORGANIZATIONAL & TIME MANAGEMENT SKILLS - It is absolutely essential that you be extremely organized. You have to manage your time well because you'll have countless of things to do and you'll have to prioritise. In legal practice, eveything is a matter of deadlines. From count filings, to replies to letters.

KNOWLEDGE AND APPLICATION OF THE LAW - Knowledge of the law is what you should learn in law school. Application of the law is mostly what you learn in practice. Although you may not remember a law or a particular area in law is new, you must know how to find such law (thus research skill is essential). Because the law is so wide, as these are different areas of practice, no attorney can know and become an expert in all the laws even if he / she studies for a lifetime. Because of this, most attorneys tend to specialise in certain areas of law.

MARKETING - This is also an essential area of legal practice these days with high level of competition amongst lawyers. You must be able to acquire clients. Knowing the law is not enough, especially if you plan to set up your own practice. You must lean how to market yourself and obtain clients.

These are some of the "inside tips" on becoming a successful lawyer. With this, I wish you good luck in you prospective career in law.