You won’t need an oven or cookie sheets for this recipe. Instead, you will need skills that aren’t available at your local supermarket. In order to earn a law degree, you will need to possess certain skills unique to the field. Check out these essential ingredients.
- Communication Skills- Lawyers work closely with clients to get their message across. Whether it’s through writing or speaking, the message needs to be delivered clearly and precisely. Every detail counts. A good lawyer should also be able to communicate well with their clients to make sure all of their needs are met. Clients pay lawyers a large amount of money to assist them with many different issues that may be going on in their life. It’s important, as a lawyer, to communicate well with clients not only to keep them happy, but also to gain referrals from their families and friends.
- Analytical Skills- Lawyers need to be able to analyze any situation, at any time. Some lawyers defend clients they may know are guilty. Therefore, they will need to analyze the situation to see what parts of a story are significant for the case.
- Organization Skills- The legal system requires a lot of paperwork to be completed before any legal action takes place. With so much paperwork to sort through, organization is key. Lawyers need to be sure who to follow-up with and what documents need to be filled out and signed. An unorganized lawyer simply will not see any results.
- Teamwork- Many lawyers work with partners or teams of lawyers to accomplish a goal. Some clients may have more than one lawyer on a case. This means that lawyers will need to work well with other professionals to collaborate, listen to their ideas, and produce results from them.
- Memorization Skills- There are many state and federal laws that lawyers need to memorize and retain. In order to succeed, a lawyer should be knowledgeable on a particular law at any given time. This does not only require great memorization skills but also the ability to retain the information. Ways to practice these skills are to read informational books or novels to practice your ability to remember information that you read. Law school requires a large amount of reading, so why not start early?
Now that you know the 5 essential ingredients to make a lawyer, what’s holding you back? You don’t have to apply to law school today, but at least try working on these skills beforehand. Before you bake a cake, you run to the store for the ingredients right? Think of becoming a lawyer in a similar way.