Communication Skills for Legal Professionals
Communication is an integrated part of your legal life, and the more you develop your communication skills, the better they will serve you, your firm and your clients. These short courses are designed to help you hone your business writing and meeting skills for maximum effect.
Business Writing: Engaging the Reader course
This course will show you how to write and make your content relevant for a professional audience. It is a short course providing you with sufficient knowledge, theory, and practice to give you the confidence to engage with your business reader more effectively.
- Length of course: 5 hours
- Learning method: Online, self-paced
- What is included? Online workbooks, lectures and interactive exercises
- Junior Lawyer Competency Skills: Personal Management, People Management, Project Management
Course Description
Think you are good at writing? After all, you mastered academic writing skills to get to this point. But effective business writing is different and academic legal writing is neither appreciated nor welcomed in a professional context! Even if you’ve had experience in business writing, there’s always scope to write clearer and more effectively.
- This course introduces three essential business writing topics:
- The key principles of effective business writing
- Methods and tips to improve your business writing
- How to identify problems in your own and other’s writing to ensure quality and impact
We explain the difference between academic and business writing, both in style and purpose, and contextualise this within the logic of effective business communications. We introduce you to a dependable process for writing good content, show you how to structure it, and provide tips on how to compete with the human tendency to skim-read. We also focus on best practice for writing emails and how to proofread your own work - as well as the work of others.
Who is this course for?
Each of these topics and associated skills are explored in the context of working as a junior lawyer, including SQE students, NQs, and up to around three years post qualification. Though the examples we use focus on law firms, the same concepts apply if you are working in-house. The course is also useful to other legal professionals.
Meetings: What You Say and How You Say it course
Develop highly effective meeting skills whether in-person or online, internal or client-facing, with this practical short course.
- Length of course: 5 hours
- Learning method: Online, self-paced
- What is included? Online workbooks, lectures and interactive exercises
- Junior Lawyer Competency Skills: Successful Communication, People Management, Business Awareness
Course Description
A core part of being a successful lawyer is having the skills to effectively communicate your legal knowledge to your clients and colleagues. This course focusses on in-person communication and introduces you to the following three essential communication skills topics:
- Conducting and structuring successful meetings
- How different communication methods and human behaviour impact your audience
- Your communication style and how best to present yourself.
This course identifies some of the challenges you may face in conducting in-person meetings, guiding you through how best to conduct and structure a meeting. It also explores the pros and cons of other methods of communication, including online meetings, telephone calls and email. We also offer some thoughts on how best to present or introduce yourself, both in-person and online.
Who is this course for?
Each of these topics and associated skills are explored in the context of working as a junior lawyer, including SQE students, NQs, and up to around three years post qualification. Though the examples we use focus on law firms, the same concepts apply if you are working in-house. The course is also useful to other legal professionals.
Presenting Masterclass
LIVE DATE: THURSDAY 27 JUNE 2024
TIME: 12:00 - 1:30PM BST
Speaking in front of an audience is daunting, even for the most eloquent. This masterclass will give you tips and best practice on structuring a presentation as well as on how to deliver it.
- Learning method: 90 minutes
- Learning method: Scheduled live workshop, virtual, interactive
- Junior Lawyer Competency Skills: Successful Communication, Business Awareness, People Management
Report Writing Masterclass
LIVE DATE: TUESDAY 30 JULY 2024
TIME: 12:00 - 1:30PM BST
Structuring and writing a professional report that contains all relevant information in a logical and accessible format is difficult. This masterclass will give you the tools to write reports that your professional audience wants to read.
- Learning method: 90 minutes
- Learning method: Scheduled live workshop, virtual, interactive
- Junior Lawyer Competency Skills: Successful Communication, Solution Finding, Business Awareness