Main Qualities To Look For When Hiring A Civil Litigation Lawyer

In all law fields the attorney that wants to be successful needs some character traits and skills. These enable the professional to stand out from all the other attorneys that offer similar services. Such skills vary based on law fields. For instance, transactional and organizational skills are highly advantageous for attorneys involved in business planning. Scientific and technical knowledge help patent attorney do the job right.

When looking at civil litigation lawyers, what are the qualities clients need to look out for? Joey Langston answers this question and highlights the following.

Interpersonal Skills

Practicing attorneys need to have strong interpersonal skills. A civil litigator spends a lot of time meeting with judges, clients, colleagues and other co-workers. All relationships highlighted are different and require different interpersonal skills. There are relationships that require stronger management skills. Other relationships need an ability to properly listen and then meaningfully answer. As opposed to the transactional attorney, the civil litigator has to be fully comfortable when talking to practically anyone.

Persuasiveness

Civil litigators need the skills to convince a jury, judge, opposing counsel or client about different particular issues. No matter the context, persuasion power is crucial. Sometimes the litigator tries to persuade another attorney that the case is stronger so a settlement is needed. When going to trial, the civil litigator needs to be as persuasive as possible to win.

Clear Communication

Communication skills should never be underestimated in court of law, especially when looking at cases involving civil litigations. The way in which the attorney communicates is going to dictate success or failure for so many different litigations. The skilled communicator understands how to communicate when faced with different people, which is exactly what civil litigation attorneys do.

Confidence

Who can take someone seriously when that person is not confident? In order to attract new business, the attorney needs to portray confidence. This is not easy to do. The lawyer has to read the audience and accordingly adjust behavior. The client never wants to hire an attorney that does not offer options or that is not confident that the result of the case will be as it should be.

Honesty

In so many cases we see attorneys talking to clients and telling them exactly what they want to hear. This is a really bad approach. Appeasing clients with misleading or incorrect answers is a really bad idea. Honesty does include telling the client when a specific case cannot possibly be won or when the case is not what is typically handled by the law firm.

Learning Ability

Civil litigation lawyers need to be able to and willing to keep learning. Clients require the attorney to deal with some particular and specific problems. In many cases this is not in the area of expertise of that attorney. However, when having a really strong ability to learn, it becomes easy to adapt and offer good advice. Laws always change. Successful attorneys keep learning and adapt to the changes that appear. When it is not possible to keep learning, attorneys quickly become outdated.