Skills For An Aspiring Auckland Commercial Lawyer
Seven Skills For A Career As Successful Auckland Commercial Lawyer
As well as your knowledge of the law, law firms look for candidates with a specific mix of soft skills. Learn more about the skills you’ll need to be a successful Auckland commercial lawyer.
Commercial Awareness
Knowledge of current developments in local, national, and international business, particularly issues affecting a law firm and its clients, is one of the most important skills lawyers require. Firms expect employees to market their services to prospective clients, as well as develop trusting relationships with existing ones.
Ultimately, law firms are businesses, so lawyers must appreciate the commercial importance of meeting deadlines, keeping costs low and handling information confidentially.
A client, meanwhile, expects an Auckland commercial lawyer to fully understand how their business is run, and which wider social, political, and economic issues may affect them. If applicable, lawyers must also appreciate the short-, medium-, and long-term implications of their client’s business proposal. This can include thinking strategically about the organisation’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This enables the lawyer to provide pragmatic, business-minded legal advice to the best of their ability.
Attention To Detail
Accuracy is a vital skill in law and is pivotal to the success of your legal career. A single word out of place can change the meaning of a clause or contract, while mis-spelt or ungrammatical emails, letters or documents give clients a bad impression, which might cost your firm their business.
When applying for jobs or training contracts remember that employers look for spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors. If your cover letter is vague, too long, or littered with spelling mistakes, a recruiter may question what a potential client would make of your letter of advice.
To improve attention to detail, volunteer your proofing services to student publications and get used to going through your own work with a fine-tooth comb.
Communication
Strong oral and written communication skills are crucial and without them you’ll struggle to carry out the duties of a lawyer effectively. Excellent listening ability is also important when working with clients, as you need to be able to build relationships and engender confidence.
You need to be a confident speaker when arguing a case in court, negotiating settlements, or explaining complex information to clients. You’ll have to use persuasive, clear, and succinct language.
Public speaking is also required in the role of a barrister. To hone this skill while at university, volunteer as the spokesperson in group activities or get involved in debate teams.
Written ability is equally important when drafting letters and legal documents. You’ll need to know technical and legal language and be able to convey it clearly and concisely. To improve your written communication skills, get involved with your university’s law society. You could take meeting minutes, draft emails, write newsletters or manage social media accounts.
Teamwork
Winning cases is a team effort. Lawyers need to collaborate with colleagues and partners, as well as liaise with clients. The ability to work as part of a team is an essential legal skill and you’ll need to be able to deal with people from all levels of the legal hierarchy, from trainees and pupils, to members of the judiciary. It is also crucial that clients trust their legal representatives, so you’ll need to be personable, persuasive and polite. The easiest way to hone your people skills is to join a team. This could be a sports team, drama club or choir – anything that enables you to work with others.
Part-time work in a customer service role is another way to improve this skill, as is volunteering.
Information Analysis And Research
Reading large amounts of information, absorbing facts and figures, analysing material and distilling it into something manageable is a feature of any law career. Being able to identify what is relevant out of a mass of information and explain it clearly and concisely to your client is key.
Develop this skill by taking large documents or long news articles and making five-point bulleted lists of the most important themes.
Research also plays a huge role in a lawyer’s day-to-day job. You’ll need research skills when doing the background work on a case, drafting legal documents, and advising clients on complicated issues. Use your time at university to familiarise yourself with Internet and library resources and build up a network of contacts. As a newly qualified solicitor or barrister industry connections can prove to be a useful source of advice.
Organisation
Researching points of law, drafting legal documents and contracts, managing case files, meeting clients, attending court and networking with legal professionals – it’s fair to say that the life of a lawyer or barrister is one big juggling act. The ability to prioritise and remain focused among competing priorities is essential. This is why organisational skills are so important to your legal career. You’ll have plenty of opportunity to improve this skill throughout your training and work experience. To demonstrate it to employers, mention how you held down a part-time job or the membership of a society while studying. Or perhaps you organised an event.
Creative Problem Solving
You may think that the legal profession provides little outlet for an individual’s creative talent, but this isn’t the case. No matter which legal career you choose you will frequently have to think outside the box to get the job done.
As experienced lawyers and barristers will tell you, the best course of action isn’t always the easiest or the most obvious. To out-manoeuvre opposing parties and secure a positive result for your client you’ll need to employ your creative thinking and problem-solving skills on an almost daily basis. A good way to develop these abilities is to take part in student competitions, such as mooting, become a student representative or gain a position on your students’ union.”
An Auckland Commercial Lawyer
If you would like a career as an Auckland commercial lawyer, McVeagh Fleming is a growing law firm, operating from three sites in the region. You can find out more from the link below.