Essential soft skills for lawyers

See the Essential soft skills for lawyers launch press release with a summary of some key findings (6th July 2020)

See a 9 minute video on “What are soft skills and why are they important?“

Book review (September 2020)

“This timely book is the first of its kind which I’ve encountered and provides a hugely important perspective on the professional skills required by the next generation of lawyers. The text is accessible and practical in outlook while also offering a wealth of detail and recommended resources which will be invaluable to students and practitioners alike. It brings together the full range of existing and emerging competencies such as legal technology and business development, and offers insightful guidance on how to enhance these skillsets. I would recommend this book to all law students embarking on a career in legal practice and to practising lawyers seeking to future-proof their careers in a dynamic legal marketplace.” Chris Howard, Director of Professional Legal Education, The Professional Law Institute, The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London

Book review (August 2020)

“This book is useful to lawyers at all levels – whether in a large or small practice. It provides insights and tips for lawyers who, as in many professions, may find the transition from pure practitioner to a manager of others challenging. It will also resonate with anyone in first line management or a newly-appointed leader within any industry or discipline. It is crammed with easy-to-read strategic and operational models. It shows the reality of bringing all aspects of soft skill theory into everyday life and makes it pertinent and relevant. Many office workers, particularly those in technical and highly-regulated areas, would benefit from having a greater awareness and knowledge of how to display softer skills, as well as perhaps “permission” and confidence to do so. This book describes the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ of soft skills. Equally it includes global evidence and examples of ‘where’ in some of its insightful case studies. It has been an honour to provide a small input into the book by way of a behavioural competency model. In our pandemic world we see the need to break down the harsh psychological barriers generated by both physical and technological boundaries. And not just those that have been historically synonymous with the personality types that typically populate the legal profession. This book is therefore timely for any emerging leader as well as those needing to reinvent their skills in response to the evolving climate”. Sue Colton (Occupational Psychologist), Director, SJC Consulting London Ltd

Book review (July 2020)

“Every so often, a book is published which you know will become the ‘go-to’ text in its field. For lawyers, L&D and HR professionals, trainers and coaches, Kim has skilfully crafted a definitive guide to essential soft skills for lawyers. It contains a wealth of resources offering a research-based overview into the importance of soft skills. With real life practical examples from leading law firms, it is well referenced with a comprehensive list of sources. Easy to dip into for an understanding of different soft skills, or to broaden knowledge of a familiar topic, the book is a welcome addition to the library of any HR or L&D professional”. Caron Murphy (Former Head of L&D, Russell-Cooke LLP)

About Essential Soft Skills for Lawyers

Between September 2019 and March 2020 I researched and wrote a new book for Globe Law and Business https://www.globelawandbusiness.com/ on Essential Soft Skills for Lawyers. It will be published in summer 2020.

The purpose of the book is:

To explore the importance of soft skills for modern lawyers
To examine the views of leading lawyers and learning and development professionals on critical soft skills for lawyers
To understand how best to develop essential soft skills for lawyers and the range of learning and development techniques available
To provide an overview of five essential soft skills for lawyers

The book draws on over 20 years’ experience of training and coaching lawyers and other professionals in a range of soft skills. It also includes comments and case studies from over 20 lawyers and learning & development professionals at large and small law firms including:

Cleary Gottlieb
Davitt Jones Bould
Law South
LexLeyton
Mundays
Norton Rose Fulbright
Osbornes Law
rhw Solicitors
Ropes & Gray
Roythornes

as well as other specialists in psychology, training and technology (e.g. Lexis Nexis, Performance Leader).

The importance of soft skills

“The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people” Theodore Roosevelt (1900)

“The care economy will favour those people with good interpersonal skills” Ian Pearson, Futurizon (2013)

Just some of the statistics about the importance of soft skills:

Stanford Research Institute reported that 75% of long term job success depends upon soft skills mastery and only 25% on technical skills
Tested alongside 33 other important skills emotional intelligence (EQ) subsumes the majority of them including time management, decision-making and communication
EQ accounts for 58% of performance in all types of jobs and is the single biggest predictor in the workplace and the strongest driver of leadership and personal excellence

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) uses continuing competence to make sure solicitors can do their jobs to the standard expected of them. The SRA lists four core competencies to focus on of which three relate to soft skills:

Ethics, professionalism and judgement
Technical legal practice
Working with other people
Managing yourself and your own work

An article in Solicitors Journal in March 2019 stated “The belief that soft skills training is a new phenomenon in legal services is not entirely accurate. It started more than 20 years ago when the LPC course offered training in negotiation, interview techniques and communication”.

Sonica Mouton, an industrial psychologist said “According to the respected legal futurist, Richard Susskind, it’s no longer just enough to teach the old basic skills of lawyering in the new, AI-driven, automated economy. A new type of lawyer is needed who is not only trained in the use of coding and legal technology, but also in skills that AI will not be capable of automating. These include the very “human” capabilities of creativity, empathy, compassion, and emotional intelligence. More and more if you want to practise law you need to become a trusted adviser to your client, you need the ability to listen, to communicate and relate to others to help solve their legal problems”

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Work report 2018, which interviewed global companies employing 15 million people (of which 1.3 million were in professional services) stated: “Amongst the trending skills in demand are: analytical thinking and innovation, active learning and learning strategies, creativity, technology design and programming, critical thinking and analysis, complex problem-solving, leadership and social influence, emotional intelligence, reasoning and systems analysis”. http://kimtasso.com/environmental-analysis-slept-and-planning-future-of-jobs-report-2018-impact-of-technology/

Outline and indicative contents of Essential Soft Skills for Lawyers

Introduction

What do we mean by soft skills?

The importance of soft skills for lawyers
- The Future of Work
- The Solicitors Regulations Authority
- Law firm distinction
- Legal Futurists
- The Trusted Advisor
- T-shaped lawyers
- O-shaped lawyers

Emotional intelligence for lawyers
- What is emotional intelligence?
  - Self-awareness and personality assessments
  - Self-management
  - Social awareness and empathy
  - Relationship management
- Client views on emotional intelligence in lawyers
- The link between confidence and perfectionism
- Stress, resilience and well-being
- The high performance environment

Methods of developing lawyer soft skills
- Approaches to training and development
- Dedicated L&D function
- Training academies
- External training suppliers
- Self-managed learning
- Best practice
- On-the-job training
- Digital training
- Role models
- Feedback
- Law Society research
- How to promote learning and different learning styles
  - Fixed and growth mind set
  - Adaptive third
  - Change management
  - Learning process
  - Learning styles
  - Reflection
  - Motivation to learn
- Coaching and mentoring
- The views of HR and L&D professionals in law firms

The range of soft skills required be lawyers
- Essential soft skills for lawyers
- Qualities and attributes for lawyers

Five essential soft skill categories for lawyers
- Personal skills – Goals and self-management
  - Goal-setting
  - Making an impact, personal brand and messaging
  - Creativity
- Communication skills
  - Non-Verbal Communication
  - Active listening
  - Storytelling
- Relationship skills
  - A model of business relationships
  - Creating rapport and trust
  - Navigating difference and conflict
- Managing a team skills
  - Delegation
  - Coaching
  - Feedback
- Business development skills – marketing, selling and referrer management
  - Researching
  - Networking
  - Selling and Pitching

Soft skills in other professions
- Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
- Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW)
- Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)

Concluding comments and the way forward
- Signposts to other learning resources
- About the author
- List of contributors

Appendices:
- Illustrative competency framework
- Example competency breakdown

Further details of the book and pre-order information is here: https://www.globelawandbusiness.com/special-reports/essential-soft-skills-for-lawyers-what-they-are-and-how-to-develop-them

Some of the soft skills I address are covered in my recent book “Better Business Relationships” which was published by Bloomsbury in September 2019. http://kimtasso.com/publications/better-business-relationships/