Great Attorneys Have The Intangibles

As a professor and pre-law advisor, countless students express a passion for and commitment to a legal career every semester. In so doing, they always ask the same question: what skills are needed to be a great lawyer? Intelligence, critical thinking, research, and writing skills are essential. However, the intangible skills truly separate a mediocre lawyer from an elite lawyer. And although students certainly need to improve their critical thinking, research, and writing skills, they also need to develop intangible skills. Below is a list of some of the most important intangible skills.

1.    Emotional intelligence and common sense.

Emotional intelligence may matter more than raw intelligence. This refers to a person’s ability to manage their emotions and cope well during times of stress, pressure, and adversity. Emotionally intelligent people are self-aware, thrive under difficult circumstances, empathize with others, overcome challenges, and address interpersonal conflict effectively. Lawyers who lack emotional intelligence and the ability to self-regulate are at high risk for developing depression or struggling with substance abuse – a fact that is well-documented in the legal profession.

Common sense refers to the ability to perceive personal and professional situations accurately to enable you to exercise good judgment and make correct decisions in response to those situations. If you lack common sense, your judgment and ability to navigate complex and difficult situations will be affected.

Simply put, it is not sufficient to have an IQ of 130 or an LSAT score of 170. You have to be “street smart” and have the emotional maturity to deal with and thrive under the adversity that a life in the legal profession engenders.

2.    Hard work, resilience, and perseverance.

Many students lack a true understanding of what it means to work hard, prepare, and persist under difficult circumstances and unexpected challenges. Sometimes, particularly in the legal profession, you have to work day and night – for months and even years – litigating a complex case or preparing for a trial or appellate oral argument. You will be exhausted and struggle to operate at a high level. In these circumstances, elite lawyers persevere, remain resilient, and maintain focus and discipline. Put simply, hard work does not mean working until you get a task right. It means working until you cannot get it wrong. And great lawyers work harder and prepare more than anyone, thus ensuring that they can produce a peerless work product.

Ultimately, although most people can excel when circumstances are ideal, far fewer can excel when life gets difficult, such as when experiencing, for example, the breakup of a marriage, coping with the death of a family member, or struggling with anxiety or depression. Great lawyers can compartmentalize and excel despite these challenges.

3.    Creativity.

Great lawyers think outside of the box. They do not simply make arguments in a formulaic and predictable manner or based solely on precedent. Rather, in appropriate cases, they develop creative and original arguments, present them persuasively, and move the law forward.  For example, in Griswold v. Connecticut and Roe v. Wade, who would have thought that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, which prohibits the government from depriving citizens of “life, liberty, or property…without due process of law” would include an implicit right to privacy and a right to terminate a pregnancy? Great lawyers made those arguments and the United States Supreme Court agreed that this unenumerated substantive right was encompassed within the “liberty” protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. Additionally, in National Federation of Independent Investors v. Sebelius, who would have thought that the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate could be interpreted as a tax, as Chief Justice Roberts held, rather than a penalty? Again, great lawyers made those arguments because they were creative and thought outside of the box.

4.    Judgment and strategic thinking.

Elite lawyers exercise great judgment and think strategically to achieve the best result possible for their clients. Good judgment and strategic thinking require the ability to, among other things, make the right decisions based on incomplete facts and data, anticipate an opponent’s arguments, predict what questions a court will ask at oral argument, know what questions to ask during a deposition, and understand how to negotiate a settlement. Good judgment and strategic thinking are a product of common sense, experience, and instinct; lawyers lacking these skills will struggle to achieve positive outcomes for their clients.

5.    Communicate effectively – and listen meaningfully.

Excellent lawyers know how to communicate – and how to listen. Excellent communication skills involve, for example, knowing how to simplify and make understandable complex facts and legal issues, adapting your communication strategy based on the audience to whom you are speaking, providing unfavorable opinions to a client in an empathetic manner, and choosing words that maximize persuasion and credibility.

Great communicators are also great listeners. They know that listening actively enables you to accept feedback constructively, benefit from different perspectives that challenge your opinions, foster strong relationships, facilitate better decision-making, and avoid unnecessary conflicts.

6.    Confidence and humility.

If you want to be a great lawyer, you must have confidence. That means believing in yourself and your ability, and not being intimidated by your adversary or the court. It means trusting in your preparation and having pride in your performance, knowing that if you prepare well, you will excel consistently. If you lack confidence, the court, the adversary, and your client will perceive it immediately and it will undermine the persuasiveness and credibility of your arguments.

Having healthy confidence, however, does not mean being an arrogant, narcissistic jerk. These people, who think that they can do no wrong, and who get offended whenever someone offers constructive feedback or disagrees with their views, are insufferable and never grow as lawyers or people. The best lawyers are confident and humble. They know that they are not right all the time or have the answers to every question. Instead, they listen. They learn. They grow. And they understand that success is so often due to other people who have helped and supported you along the way.

7.    Discipline, focus, and time management.

The best lawyers do not focus on external factors, such as opinions, perceptions, or expectations. Instead, they focus on what they can control and maintain discipline under exceedingly difficult circumstances. They do not get discouraged by a negative ruling, a poor performance, or a challenging workload. They do not get distracted by professional or personal conflicts.

Great lawyers also know how to manage their time. They work efficiently and budget their time to ensure that they can perform consistently at a high level. They do not waste time on needless conversations or meetings, or on tasks that could be delegated to someone else. By doing so, they improve their performance and likelihood of success.

8.    Teamwork.

Excellent lawyers know how to work as part of a team and maximize the contributions of all team members. They know how to lead and how to motivate and inspire a team. They listen to feedback. They delegate. They cooperate. They are humble. They value every member of the team. They offer support, encouragement, and constructive criticism. They understand the strengths and weaknesses of every team member and develop a plan to maximize those strengths. If a lawyer cannot work on a team and effectively navigate group dynamics, it will affect the quality of that lawyer’s representation and the likelihood of achieving success in a given case.  

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Many law schools do not emphasize the development of intangible skills, in part because they are so difficult to teach. However, for aspiring lawyers, the knowledge that intangible skills are critical to success enables them to focus individually and collectively on developing these skills in their professional and personal lives.