In an earlier post, we talked about the different roles that a client might need you to play: Legal technician, legal manager or legal advisor. And we talked about the relative usefulness and prestige of each of these roles, and the fact that you might flip from one mode to another within a single assignment, or even within a single conversation. We discussed the importance of knowing what is needed of you at a particular moment, and making sure that you have the skills and knowledge to allow you to be useful in that moment.
In this post we will provide an overview of some of the skills that belong in the “technician” bucket, but we will try to focus on the ones that law schools don’t cover. But let’s do some warm up first…
What are the skills that law students think they need to master, in order to be a great legal technician?
You might have had a notion that knowing the law would be really important. Indeed, the more law you know the better. Right? And a good memory for facts, the ability to recall obscure precedents, and the ability to connect the dots between vastly disparate areas of knowledge… all helpful, no?
How about arguing from first principles? Also important, surely. Law schools teach you the moral and philosophical foundations of the law, and it must be important to be able to work your way quickly and reliably from the hallowed idea of justice to its application in the specific circumstances before you.
What about the ability to see the big picture? To understand law as vast and varied terrain, as an intersection of politics, power, myth and imagination? Surely to practice law, one ought to be able to think, think, think! about it deeply and passionately. Yes, surely...
Rude awakening number 1: What all associates actually need to be good at
I sincerely hope that after about four minutes in an actual law firm, you came to realise that none of the above are prerequisites for being a useful, valued, well-paid lawyer.
While you were at law school, you might have had the luxury of thinking about the law. But now that you are in practice, you understand that your day is spent making law happen. And as you will have discovered by now, your ability to do your job rests on a set of very basic, but important, skills that have absolutely no connection to legal theory.
I may not have spent much time as a lawyer, but I was around long enough to learn that, for a young associate:
- Knowing the law is less important than being able to look it up really really fast
- Arguing about the law is much less important than explaining it clearly
- Situating the law in its majestic context is very much less important than solving the issue at hand.
The specific technical skills associated with this are, quite simply:
- Using the internet to find the law
- Using a word processor to write e-mails and memos explain the law
- Using basic reasoning to match elements of the law to the fact pattern you have been presented with.
I know that’s a brutal pastiche, but I stand by it.
A side note on tooling:
Every associate needs to have superhuman word processing and digital document management skills. You need to be able to type fast and accurately, you need to know your way around the editing, formatting and pagination functions of your programme, and you need to be good at assembling packages of digital documents, and compressing, labelling, linking, uploading and sharing them. This will save time, reduce errors, and make you look efficient, intelligent and reliable. Don't underestimate how irritating it is for a client to receive a document that "doesn't work".
Rude awakening number 2: Extra things that corporate and commercial associates need to be extra good at
The above skills apply to all associates, regardless of practice area. But those of you working on business matters may still find yourselves disoriented despite being good at the things we have mentioned. So if you are servicing business clients, you should also be really good at the following:
- Mental math
- Creating simple financial models
- Using tables and formulae
Why? Because business is based on numbers, and you need to be comfortable navigating, manipulating, and drawing insights from them. Not only that: You will often be working in concert with accountants, bankers and management consultants for whom numbers are the lingua franca of business, and you absolutely need to be able to critically evaluate what they are saying.
Another side note on tooling:
Just as every legal associate must know how to use a word processor very very well, so every young business lawyer must be adept at using a spreadsheet programme. You must be able to capture numbers and words on a grid, and use spreadsheet functions to manipulate those inputs. Bonus if you learn a few keyboard shortcuts!
Do clients really expect me to be confident around numbers?
Actually no. Many clients have had their expectations set by lawyers who are intimidated by, or even dismissive of, anything remotely mathematical. But that’s all the more reason for you to invest time in becoming comfortable with numbers. You will stand out, add value and delight your clients. So get to it!
We will discuss these skills in more detail. Stay tuned…