Video: What makes a good lawyer? 2024, July
Society has fairly high requirements for representatives of the legal profession. In many ways, they are associated with the personality of the specialist, as well as with his professionalism. In modern society, virtually no area of human activity is complete without legal support. It is the representatives of this profession that have to do a lot of paper work, be able to solve conflict situations, etc.
What qualities do a lawyer need?
Below we consider the personal characteristics that should be inherent in the representative of this profession.
- Moral
- Punctuality.
- Justice.
- Communicative.
- Stress resistance.
- Interest.
You can not select only one of them, making the rest less priority. The moral qualities of a lawyer are no less important than punctuality. It is the combination of the above characteristics that distinguishes a good specialist who they prefer to trust.
Moral
This is perhaps the most important personal quality of a lawyer. A developed sense of morality will not allow a specialist to make a deal with his own conscience. A principal lawyer acts in accordance with the law and does not act in the opposite way, even if such behavior can bring him some benefits. If the specialist is honest with himself and with others, this is a good quality of the lawyer, as well as a sign that, most likely, he can be trusted.
Punctuality
The ability to value one’s own and others’time is a useful skill in any profession. It is worth noting that punctuality is not just a habit of coming to work on time. This is a special way of thinking. Having punctuality, the lawyer knows how to set a goal, trying to evaluate his own possibilities as objectively as possible.
Justice
This quality of a lawyer is a priority. The ability to conduct an open mind in every situation is worth a lot. A fair specialist is not ready to make a deal with his own conscience and act against the law. It is this quality that allows a professional to gain the trust of employers and customers.
Communicative
The ability to establish and maintain contacts is useful in any field of activity. Jurisprudence is no exception. An employee in this area has to establish relationships with a wide variety of people. The ability to build and maintain trusting relationships takes a specialist to a new level, increasing his authority.
To achieve success and build a career in the legal field, a person must have developed communication skills. This is a quality that a lawyer must not neglect. In fact, an impressive part of his activity is based on interaction with various people. This skill is useful for achieving various goals: persuading customers, finding compromise solutions with partners, concluding an agreement on favorable terms, etc.
In interpersonal communications, one must take into account legal norms, as well as ethical rules accepted in society. In this case, the use of both formal and informal methods of interaction is allowed.
Stress resistance
The specialist often has to work with other people, and this leads to increased intensity of emotions. To the list of the main qualities of a lawyer, you should certainly add resistance to stress and the ability to cope with your own emotions. This will maintain performance even in stressful situations.
On the contrary, low resistance to stress will negatively affect the work process, even if the professional qualities of a lawyer are at their best. In this area, personal characteristics play a significant role. If ignored, it is likely that the chosen activity will bring disappointment. That is why those who are easily influenced by stressful situations should think about choosing a different direction or increase their own emotional resistance to negative external influences.
Legal professions often involve high emotional involvement. The specialist has to cope with the flow of negative emotions. It is advisable not to suppress them, but to splash out. But to do it in such a way as not to show pronounced aggression, not to arrange conflicts, etc. That is why, when selecting personnel, special attention is paid to the personal and psychological characteristics of potential candidates. In particular, stress resistance.
Interest
In addition to meeting formal professional and personal characteristics, a potential or existing lawyer should have an internal interest in the chosen field of activity. This, as a rule, becomes almost the best motivator, a kind of engine that makes you constantly strive to improve your own results, to achieve respect in the professional environment, to gain trust from potential customers, etc.
Other important features
High-quality professional activity of a lawyer is impossible without a developed memory. The workflow implies the need to memorize a considerable amount of theoretical material. In addition, information must be able to not only be put off in memory, but also analyzed. Appropriate abilities will also not be superfluous for a potential lawyer.
It is curious that upscale representatives of the aforementioned profession may even have acting talent. For example, such a skill is useful when speaking in court, namely at those moments when the lawyer has to state his own position, defending the interests of the client who has applied to him. An eloquent specialist can more easily convince those present of their own rightness than his shy colleague, who is afraid of any public speaking.
For lawyers, there is such a thing as professional behavior, which is regulated by the relevant regulatory legal acts. If you violate them, you can incur the application of appropriate sanctions provided for by law.
As a rule, the problem of compliance with professional behavior arises if a lawyer combines several types of activities. For example, legal, political, entrepreneurial. A similar problem may also concern those specialists who seek to use their own official position for personal purposes.
A professional lawyer must have the willpower to control emotional impulses. It is impossible to completely abandon feelings, since it is common for any person to experience them. However, the likelihood of them getting out of control can be minimized.
Willpower can and should be developed. However, you need to know that this is a rather lengthy process. Ideally, this quality should be formed from childhood. However, improper education can significantly reduce the manifestation of a strong will. In its absence, even seemingly persistent people are able to commit unwanted, unusual for them actions leading to negative consequences. A limp person is useless in work, and in an extreme situation it can even be dangerous. Firm will is almost the key to success in the field of legal activity. That is why it is so important to pay attention to its development.
Professional qualities of a lawyer
In addition to personal characteristics, there is a whole set of those that characterize the direct fulfillment of duties. Let's take a closer look at them.
Educational institutions that provide theoretical training for future lawyers, in their own activities, are guided by various professional programs that involve a certain level of training for young professionals.
One of the most important factors is social adaptation, which involves a certain normative behavior of a lawyer. It is based on a whole list of different qualities. We list them:
- Justice.
- Principle, allowing to deal with violations of law and order.
- Obligatory.
- Diligence.
- Discipline.
All the previously listed qualities of a lawyer allow a specialist to carry out his own duties and be able to bring even complex tasks to their logical conclusion.
Professional attributes of a good lawyer
In modern society, the number of specialists in this profile is quite large. However, not all of them can boast of confident professionalism. What signs distinguish a specialist?
- Qualitative theoretical training.
- Practical work experience.
- Continuous improvement and the ability to keep abreast of current changes in legislation.
The concept of professionalism in legal activity includes compliance with accepted methods and compliance with requirements. These are the main points. Professionalism is achieved by improving one's own skills. That is why theoretical training alone is usually not enough to become a highly qualified specialist in the field of jurisprudence. This profession is one of those that should not be allowed amateurs and strangers. An ideal candidate for a lawyer position possesses not only professionalism, but also a high culture, both general and directly related to his activities.
Signs of incompetence
It would be unfair to keep silent about those qualities of a lawyer that are capable of blocking the path to this profession. Their list is also considerable. You should get acquainted with at least some.
For example, such qualities of a lawyer's personality include immorality and dishonesty, as well as irresponsibility and indiscipline. Given the presence of such characteristics, it is unlikely that any employer would wish to conclude a contract with such an employee. Such a specialist cannot be entrusted with complex and responsible tasks.
Another block of unacceptable qualities for a lawyer is low efficiency and unwillingness to monitor changes in legislation. The specifics of this work is such that the information is constantly changing. Those laws that were previously relevant may lose their influence and be replaced by new ones. One of the main professional qualities of a good lawyer is to regularly monitor such changes.
In the work of this specialist, the communicative component is important. In the profession, it will be difficult to get along with reserved, sensitive and conflicting people, as well as those who tend to focus on their own experiences, tend to manifest aggression, etc.
If a potential lawyer is often in a state of nervous tension, unstable to stress and quickly tired, he should think about choosing another profession. Otherwise, a high probability of disappointment in their choice.
Lawyers with the qualities listed above are unlikely to be able to gain trust through their own professional activities. It is possible that they will choose for themselves some other area during the training period or at the end of it.
