10 Soft Skills Every Lawyer Should Champion

Ruth Cox

February 20, 2023

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What exactly are soft skills?

Soft skills are non-technical skills that relate to how you work and effectively communicate with others in our personal and work environment.

In our recent article, Consultant Tito Ayantunde discussed how to prepare for the most important interview of your legal career, and she highlighted the importance of showcasing soft skills.

"It's easy to forget about selling your soft skills when questions get more technical, but they're very easy to slip into an answer. When answering questions, try and remember to speak briefly about your soft and transferrable skills and where you've used them in the past." (Tito Ayantunde, Sonder consultant).

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To expand on this, we've listed the 10 top skills every lawyer should champion to advance their legal career.

1. Resilience

In psychology, resilience is the ability of an individual to cope with a difficult or stressful situation. Thus, a resilient person is able to cope with a situation causing stress or grief while remaining positive. Showing resilience to often stressful and demanding situations as a lawyer is key to solving problems and maintaining client relationships.

2. Attention to Detail

‍Accuracy is vital when it comes to a career in law. From emails to letters and client documents to creating effective meeting agendas. Take pride is everything you do. To improve your eye, get used to going through your work with a fine-tooth comb before sending forward.

3. Teamwork

‍Utilising the team effectively and also having good relationships with your peers is key to success. Showing good team spirit will show Partners that you complement their culture and will use everyone's strengths to achieve powerful results.

“A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.” (Roy H. Williams, author).

4. Leadership

‍A good leader provides guidance, listens, answers questions and motivates others. They are fearless in taking initiative and developing new work processes are able to analyse difficult situations, manage work output and keep clients happy.

5. Creative and Innovative

The ability to think outside the box is highly admired. Many experienced lawyers say that the best direction to take is often not the most obvious one.

6. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

‍The best lawyers seem to have an innate ability to find effective (sometimes simple) solutions for complicated problems.

This is because they are able to think productively, independently and as discussed, creatively. Having the ability to make informed, rational decisions also means being mindful of ones thoughts, feelings and emotions, and can step away from these to be present in the moment.

7. Self-Motivation – It’s no secret that working as a lawyer is tough.

Self motivation is the ability to drive oneself to take initiative and action to pursue goals and complete tasks. Good lawyers will set themselves goals, they have the will to want to create and achieve and will do this off their own back.

8. Digital Technology Proficiency

‍In the current digital age it is important to keep up to date with the latest technology skills. Law firms have invested heavily in new tech to drive operations in recent years and if an Associate has an understanding of this tech, how it works and how it can be developed is definitely a win.

9. Social Intelligence

‍Lawyers with social intelligence can sense how other people feel, will build a good report with clients, present well in social situations, and seem self-assured, even in a larger crowd. You might think of these people as having “people skills,” but what they truly possess is social intelligence.