Top 8 Skills All Great Lawyers Have


31 January 2022

“What Makes a Great Lawyer?” is a recurrent question among soon-to-be or current law students. Here we’ll share with you the skills you must acquire if you want to be a great lawyer.



For all and every career potential college students want to pursue, they must conduct extensive research. When looking for information about these careers, students tend to forget about what it takes to succeed in that career, aka, the skills that they need to develop if they want to have a shot at succeeding. 

For those interested in pursuing a career in law, whether they are about to start college or are already in law school, the following are only a few of the skills they must make sure they develop during their studies and have time to put them into practice before they enter the workforce so as to excel as early in their career as possible.

1. Communication Skills

Verbal communication may be the most important skill for those who want to become barristers, as they will be in charge of communicating arguments in a persuasive manner to both the judge and the jury. 

Nonetheless, being good communicators is not exclusive to barristers. This skill will also be essential in client meetings, phone calls, presentations, and many other kinds of activities. 

On the other hand, written communication skills are also essential. Lawyers are in charge of drafting documents, writing letters to clients, drawing up contracts, among other activities that require deep writing skills.

2. Creative Problem Solving

Workers in any kind of career experience obstacles they need to overcome, as problems are unavoidable. When it comes to problems in the field of law, lawyers must be capable of thinking outside the box and exploring new avenues, ideas, and arguments to solve a problem in a case and achieve the desired outcome.

3. Empathy

A lawyer’s #1 job is to understand clients’ concerns. As such, lawyers must be able to understand people and their concerns, and empathize with them so as to make sure their needs and wants are met.

4. Independence

Being able to make decisions on your own when the situation demands it is essential! Lawyers can resort to others for help when they need it. In fact, working in teams is important, but lawyers do a lot of work on their own, which is why they must develop a huge deal of independence. 

5. Meticulousness

Working with the law involves going through extensive and unclear documents. For that reason, lawyers must have the ability to spot key pieces of information, aka, they must be meticulous.

Whether you are looking for evidence to support your case, proofreading a contract, or any other activity that requires extensive reading, being meticulous, that is, having the ability to pay attention to detail will certainly make the whole process easier and more efficient.

6. Research Skills

Developing research skills is vital for lawyers, as they are constantly doing extensive research on precedents and any kind of solution to the cases they're working on. Knowing where to look, being able to read fast and effectively, without missing any details, among others, are only some of the skills that are included in the umbrella term “research skills”.

7. Teamwork

The ability to work in teams, and do it smoothly, is vital for many, if not all, kinds of jobs, and law is no exception to the rule. Even though these professionals are required to be independent, they must be able to collaborate with others in an effective way. 

This includes being respectful of others’ opinions and ideas when they differ from ours, being able to listen and talk when appropriate, among many other skills that will make working on teams as smooth and effective as possible.

8. Work Under Pressure

It’s not uncommon for lawyers to have full plates at all times. Working on several cases at the same time with tight schedules is pretty much their everyday life. For that reason, it’s vital that they learn how to deal with pressure in a smooth and efficient manner, without losing their nerves and stressing out.

How can I develop all these skills?

If you want to make sure you develop these skills and become a great lawyer, you need to attend law school and earn a master's degree. Click here to find the master’s degrees in law available on our website.

If you need more information, please feel free to fill out the form you’ll find on our website so that one of our advisors can contact you and answer any questions you may have.




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