Effective Communication for Lawyers is an essential guide to communicating in the radically and rapidly changing environment of professional law today. Offering a deep dive into understanding communication as behaviour, as well as practical tools and insights, it connects theory to practice in order to improve client communication, support the current transformation of legal work and prepare readers for future developments and disruptions in the legal professions.
"This book is designed expressly for students in Juris Master, Master of Jurisprudence, and Master of Legal Studies programs. This concise paperback empowers students whose professional background is outside of law with a foundational understanding of the United States legal system and insight into what lawyers do. The book covers key concepts, including: Understanding the roles of legislatures, agencies, and courts; Recognizing and using basic legal vocabulary in context; Reading a variety of legal documents efficiently and effectively; Writing law-related reports and correspondence; Reading and understanding the function of primary sources of law, including statutes, regulations, and cases; Understanding the basic elements of a contract and participating in contracting processes; and Recognizing and avoiding the unauthorized practice of law"--
The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.
Lawyers know that client counseling can be the most challenging part of legal practice. Clients question and often resist the complexities and uncertainties inherent in law and legal process. Honest advice from the lawyer can make a client doubt his or her allegiance and zeal. Client backlash may be directed at the lawyer who communicates bad news. Thus, the lawyer may feel torn between the obligation to clearly inform a client about weaknesses in legal positions and fear of damaging the client relationship. Too often, the lawyer struggles to counsel a particularly difficult client, but to no avail. Client Science is written to provide insight and advice to lawyers on how to more effectively communicate with their clients with regard to legal realities and difficult decisions. It will help lawyers with the always-difficult task of delivering "bad news," which will result in better-informed and thus more satisfied clients. The book explains applicable social science research and insights and translates them into plain language relevant to legal practice and client counseling. Marjorie Corman Aaron offers specific suggestions related to a lawyer's ordering, timing, phrasing, and type of explanation, as well as style adjustments for the lawyer's voice, gesture, and body position, all to impact client counseling and to improve the lawyer-client relationship.
The actor and founder of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science traces his personal quest to understand how to relate and communicate better, from practicing empathy and using improv games to storytelling and developing better intuitive skills.
This book enables attorneys and law students to enhance their professional performance through the key soft skills of self-awareness, self-development, social proficiency, wisdom, leadership, and professionalism. It serves as both a map and a vehicle for developing the skills essential to self-knowledge and fulfillment, organizational respect and accomplishment, client satisfaction and appreciation, and professional improvement and distinction.
The legal industry has long been risk averse, but when it comes to adapting to the experience-driven world created by companies like Netflix, Uber, and Airbnb, adherence to the old status quo could be the death knell for today's law firms. In The Client-Centered Law Firm, Clio cofounder Jack Newton offers a clear-eyed and timely look at how providing a client-centered experience and running an efficient, profitable law firm aren't opposing ideas. With this approach, they drive each other. Covering the what, why, and how of running a client-centered practice, with examples from law firms leading this revolution as well as practical strategies for implementation, The Client-Centered Law Firm is a rallying call to unlock the enormous latent demand in the legal market by providing client-centered experiences, improving internal processes, and raising the bottom line.
This timely new book explains why every company and organization needs to identify a Chief Crisis Officer, and provide the proper tools to enable the Chief Crisis Officer to assemble his or her team, and respond--effectively and efficiently--when the crisis occurs. Using a mixture of real life examples, strategies, and tactics, the book will break down crises into their component parts and provide both a strategic approach to effectively dealing with those issues.
This Special Report offers a research-based view into the importance of soft skills for modern lawyers and how law firms develop essential soft skills - whether to comply with SRA rules, to lead productive teams, to provide the best service to clients or to grow their practice. This report is the guide to developing the skills needed to get ahead and stay ahead in your legal career.
