21 Skills Needed To Be A Lawyer (And Why They Matter)

One of the critical things you need to learn if you’re to secure a training contract is the key skills needed to be a lawyer.

In this post, I’ll draw from my experience as a former lawyer to outline 21 of the core skills and explain how lawyers use them.

So, let’s dive in…

1. Problem-solving and creative thinking

Strong problem-solving skills are needed, given the unique facts and circumstances surrounding each piece of legal work.

Lawyers continually think creatively and laterally to find innovative solutions that have never been used before. This is a hugely important skill.

It’s this that provides much of the value that clients are willing to pay such high fees for.

2. Resilience and confidence

Given the challenges of being a lawyer, the softer skills of resilience and inner confidence are needed.

There will be many setbacks to deal with, whether a lost case or a challenging negotiation. There will also be the constant pressures of multiple client demands and long hours.

It’s, therefore, critical to be able to deal with these challenges with inner resilience and to retain confidence in your ability and advice.

3. Commercial awareness

For commercial lawyers, in particular, critical skills are taking into account the wider business, economic and political context of the client’s business operations when providing advice.

A successful lawyer is more than a legal adviser – they’re business advisers who have to give advice that takes into account the wider circumstances at the time.

Additionally, it’s important to understand the commerciality of the role and the wider law firm’s business.

Both clients and the law firm are businesses operating in dynamic environments, and lawyers need to be commercially agile in response. 

4. Attention to detail

To be an effective lawyer, you need to be detail-oriented.

This is partly when reviewing complex facts and information to identify the most pertinent details that will best help a client achieve their desired outcome.

And it’s partly when checking for accuracy in the work they produce – ranging from typos to consistently accurate facts, often across huge amounts of documentation/evidence.

As the saying goes “the devil is in the detail” – and it’s the lawyers who need the skills to identify it.

5. Communication

So much of a lawyer’s role is communication.

This can take different forms:

• Precise writing and legal drafting.
• Active listening and effective questioning to understand client needs, key facts, and the other side’s position.
• Presentation skills to clearly convey important information – whether in client meetings, negotiations or in court.

An integral part of strong communication skills is an awareness of how to make different audiences easily understand what you’re seeking to communicate to them.

6. Teamwork

Most candidates know the importance of teamwork skills.

However, fewer of them think about what that means in practice. Key team-working skills include collaborating with a variety of legal colleagues, often across different jurisdictions. Additionally, there’s a need to work effectively with the client and external third parties.

The lawyer’s role in these wider teams is a central and critical one. 

They must ensure the appropriate flow of information and documents between people. They also need to work well with others on strategy and creative problem-solving to help the client achieve their goals.

7. Research and analytical skills

A key skill that continues after law school is legal research.

Additionally, lawyers will need to have broader research skills and the ability to analyse large volumes of information and distil key points.

Being able to analyse complex information and documentation and critically think about how that fits into the legal and commercial strategy is a critical part of being a good lawyer.

8. Organisation and time management

Not only does a lawyer need to organise huge amounts of information and documents, they also need to do this for multiple clients at the same time.

A critical part of a lawyer’s role is project management, and strong organisational skills are a must for this.

Tied to this is the ability to manage time and prioritise what needs to be done at each stage in a transaction or case. It’s the lawyer who’s in charge of managing the timelines and deadlines that clients want to aim for.

9. Working under pressure

Related to resilience is the ability to work under pressure.

Lawyers often work in high-pressure, high-stakes situations. Therefore, it’s critically important to be able to manage both the situation and yourself.

As a lawyer, you need to stay calm and work effectively when:

• Clients are pressuring you and/or being difficult or unreasonable.
• Managing high workloads and pressing deadlines.
• Under the spotlight in court or during difficult negotiations.

The lawyers who develop this ability to consistently work under pressure will be those who succeed the most.

10. Initiative

Clients are paying lawyers for their advice and opinions.

To do this well, lawyers need to trust themselves to do it independently. The key is to use initiative to reach a clear and assured conclusion around their advice.

Often, this is an area junior lawyers need to develop most – there’s a balance between knowledge and independence, and that becomes easier with experience.

11. Adaptability and flexibility

Being a lawyer means constantly dealing with lots of moving parts, such as:

• New areas of law or regulation.
• Client needs and market changes.
• Other parties’ needs, expectations and arguments.
• Technological advancements.

The ability to keep an open mind and remain adaptable and flexible is therefore crucial.

12. Leadership

You can’t be a successful lawyer without strong leadership skills:

• You will need to manage teams of lawyers and support staff.
• You will need to lead on business development and developing your team’s practice.
• You will need to lead on client matters and spearhead the team’s efforts towards a successful outcome for the client.

Leadership can come in different forms, often dependent on personality, but it’s a necessary skill for every lawyer.

13. Technological proficiency

More and more, having strong technological skills is a key part of a lawyer’s role.

Along with more traditional technology for legal research, such as Westlaw, lawyers now have AI tools at their disposal. These can greatly improve efficiency and the project management side of being a lawyer.

Those lawyers who embrace technological advancements such as AI will not only work more effectively but will also stand out to potential clients when seeking to win new work ahead of other law firms.

14. Networking and relationship building

All lawyers are working for clients, even in-house lawyers.

The ability to establish and maintain good working relationships is, therefore, a critical skill.

Additionally, the ability to make connections and develop a network is an important part of business development in private practice. It also helps to build a wider ‘team’ of people to turn to for support, knowledge and advice as and when needed.

15. Client relationship management

Given that clients are the lifeblood of a private practice lawyer’s work, being able to effectively manage client relationships is arguably the most important skill.

To develop strong relationships, lawyers need to build and maintain trust. A core part of this is clearly defining client expectations and carefully managing them at all times.

Additionally, the backbone of good client relationships is clear and consistent communication, coupled with the provision of a high quality and reliable service at all times.

16. Influencing and negotiation

An extension of communication is the ability to influence and negotiate effectively.

This often involves taking different approaches and adopting different styles to best suit the situation and other parties involved.

The skill is often in doing your best to persuade others of a particular argument or point of view whilst seeking to keep the other parties’ interests in mind. It’s not usually all about winning outright – you’re seeking to get to a win-win situation as much as you can.

Negotiation is an art as well as a skill, and it’s often a key reason why clients choose to engage lawyers who do this well.

17. Strategic thinking

This overlaps with commercial awareness and creative problem-solving.

A skilled lawyer will be as much a strategic adviser as a legal adviser. They will seek to understand a client’s business strategy and then align the legal advice they give to help achieve an outcome that‘s in line with that strategy.

A key part of this is anticipating the risks and opportunities connected with a transaction or dispute that might impact the client’s bigger-picture business strategy.

18. Ethics and integrity

Lawyers need to have ethics and integrity at the core of all their work.

While this is a skill that can be learnt, it’s also a deeper values-driven aspect of the role.

A successful lawyer will have internalised the importance of things such as client confidentiality, the need for transparency, and balancing the best interests of both the client and the firm/wider legal profession.

19. Business skills

Related to commercial awareness, there’s a critical need to have core business skills such as:

• Financial literacy – understanding financial accounting and financing arrangements for clients.
• Deep sector knowledge relating to clients.
• Law firm profitability and the key aspects that contribute to this.

Having dual business and legal skills is becoming increasingly important year after year and is a big reason why clients choose a particular lawyer or law firm.

20. Marketing

What many junior lawyers don’t grasp when entering the profession is the need for marketing skills.

Law firms operate in a competitive legal sector alongside other firms that have similar specialisms and offerings that can serve the same clients.

So, successful lawyers need to know how to build a personal brand for themselves and how to help develop the law firm’s brand. This is done via a variety of marketing activities, such as:

• Hosting client events.
• Delivering talks.
• Writing thought leadership pieces.
• Building relationships with intermediaries to refer work to them.

Having strong marketing and business development skills is often what separates the most successful lawyers.

21. Managing yourself around difficult people

Lawyers are often at the centre of high-pressure situations where parties have different interests and often disagree. Therefore, the ability to manage oneself when others are being difficult is a critical skill.

Often, this requires difficult conversations in which you must strike a balance between asserting your client’s position and maintaining professionalism and an appreciation of the other party’s position.

Successful lawyers walk this tightrope well and often need to do so on behalf of clients who are less naturally adept at it.

Always consider the combinations of skills needed

You can see there are numerous skills needed to be a successful lawyer.

Hopefully, you will have also noticed a critical aspect of these skills – i.e. there’s a huge overlap between them.

Many candidates view each skill in isolation without thinking more deeply about the wider skills and how they relate to each other.

For example, a lawyer will rarely just be using their communication skills – they may also be using their creative thinking and problem-solving skills, their attention to detail and their commercial awareness at the same time.

So, what’s important for you as a training contract candidate is to think more deeply about the multiple skills involved as you research a lawyer’s work and gain your own practical experience of it.

This deeper thinking and awareness will give you a competitive advantage over the majority of candidates, who have a more one-dimensional view of each skill.