Vande Matram! In this article, I am discussing the equipments of an advocate or in simple words skills or qualities of an advocate. All over the world, these qualities are making a lawyer a successful advocate. Let’s begin.
Introduction
Practicing
as an advocate requires you to demonstrate several core skills and
attributes. A great advocate has the potential to have a dramatic and positive
impact on the life of a client.
It’s
not an easy job, and not everyone is cut out for it. Below are the equipments
or qualities that are common to the best lawyers:
1)
Honesty and integrity in character:
An
advocate should be honest and must be a man of integrity and character. Honesty
is the quality of freedom from deceit, cheating, stealing, and telling lies.
Integrity is the quality of completeness and uprightness character. A character consisting of both mental and moral qualities makes one person different from
others.
2)
Independence and dignity:
An
advocate should maintain his dignity Independence and integrity. An advocate
should discharge his duties fearlessly and faithfully. He should fulfill his
duties with the eternal and immutable interests of truth and justice.
3)
Passion for the Job:
As
a starting point, successful lawyers almost always have a true passion for
their job. There is a wide body of scientific evidence that demonstrates the
importance of passion for your work. In other words, people who are passionate
about what they are doing are happier, more fulfilled, and perform better.
4)
Compassion and Emotional balance:
Compassion
is an emotional response whereby one perceives another’s problem and
authentically, genuinely wants to help resolve the problem. Compassion is the
foundation for good people skills. Without compassion, a lawyer cannot put
himself in his client’s shoes or fully understand the issues his client
faces. Without compassion for his/her clients, a lawyer will never reach his/her
true professional potential. A lawyer who is committed to represent and
helping his/her clients is likely to find meaning and success in his/her
professional life. Exact thinking and exact expression are needed for a
successful advocate.
5)
Good communication or negotiation skills:
On
a fundamental level, advocates are communicators. They communicate with their
clients, they communicate with other parties to the case, and they communicate
with the court. Beyond that, lawyers communicate in a wide range of different
ways. Hence lawyers or advocates must posse excellent communication skills,
both oral as well as written. To be a good advocate it matters only how you
deal with the people and interact with them. Lawyers need to know how to
network with potential clients and how to demonstrate their professional
capabilities in consultations with prospective clients.
6)
Listening skills:
When
you truly open up your ears, you will probably recognize that people are giving
you even more information than you thought. Listening to your clients,
listening to witnesses, listening to your opposing counsel, and listening to
the court can be the difference between winning and losing a case. To be a
great lawyer or advocate one must have and possess the quality and skill to
listen to each and every individual who tends to speak before him, develop the
ability to listen to others patiently and carefully. In practice, this skill
helps the lawyer and their practice in every possible manner to cross-examine the witness or to the finding of the opposite counsel and
facilitate an effective rebuttal. Although strong listening is a part of
overall communication skills, it’s important to highlight listening as its own
professional equipment. Effective communication is a two-way street. The best
way to create unique solutions is to approach each situation with compassionate
listening, which enables you to really understand the issues and what the
client and the adversary need.
7)
Knowledge of the Law and legal learning:
Learning
of law does not stop with the acquisition of a law degree from a University. To
acquire professional knowledge he has to continue the learning process. To learn law an advocate should study law,
and not merely read it. For every different matter, a lawyer has to go through
the laws, acts, and reported judgments related to similar matters. And thus
learning new laws and case laws makes the process of gaining knowledge of law
continuous.
8)
Attention to detail and good writing skills for presentation of case:
The legal profession is basically based on communication skills. Hence a successful
lawyer should give his attention to details of writing and drafting the
legal documents such as memos, notices, pleadings, etc. A single word out of
place can change the entire meaning of a clause or pleading. To be a great
lawyer, tremendous writing and drafting skills are needed which are useful and
beneficial while preparing the case arguments, briefs, and other legal
documents. An advocate should represent meaningfully his case by arranging facts
in proper sequence and chronological order without confusion. Further, he should
present a record of a citation for his law points presented. He should not give
scope for the lapses of accuracy and misstatement for facts. An advocate should not conceal adverse
points. But present the special circumstances of them.
9)
Using proper legal phraseology:
Every
science has its own terminology. In a similar way law also has its
phraseology peculiar to itself. Every phrase of law has a particularly special
meaning it carries. No other word is suitable to be used in its place. To
express some feelings the lawyer should use an appropriate word to convey such
meaning. The elegance and dignity of arguments in court can be exposed through the correct use of the language.
10)
Creativity in problem-solving and out of box thinking:
The
top or excellent lawyers are not only logical and analytical, but they display
a great deal of creativity in their problem-solving. The best solution is not
always the most obvious and it is often necessary to think outside the box to
overcome its challenges. The law is not purely a science. There is an art to
effective legal practice. Remember, each client that an advocate deals with
will have their own unique set of goals, objectives, and concerns. In some
cases, outside-the-box thinking can help craft a solution that the client may
never even realize was possible. Successful lawyers know how to tailor their creativity
to suit every situation. All cases should be approached with an open mind.
11)
Patience and perseverance:
Patience
is the power of enduring trouble, suffering, and inconvenience without
complaining. An advocate with patience will have the ability to wait for results,
to deal with problems calmly and without haste. Perseverance is consent effort
to achieve something. An advocate who is capable of doing his job, with maximum
patience self-confidence and faith is honored by all. Perseverance is the
nature and attitude which develops the capability to deal and perform the
activities and tasks assigned productively and constructively with the numerous
and variety full events which further embodies distractions. What sets
successful advocates apart from ordinary lawyers is that they know how to
persevere through the challenging times to get to the rewarding and meaningful
moments that make it all worth it.
12)
General Knowledge and memory:
An
advocate should not only be the master of his faculty in law but also the
contemporary knowledge of all the branches of human life. He must touch every
field of human beings and he has to study all walks of life of human beings. If
he is gifted with knowledge of all subjects he can claim to be an architect in
the profession. Also, an advocate should be able to recall and reproduce what he
knows regarding the matter i.e. he must have a good memory. In a general sense, a
memory means the power of keeping the fact in the conscious mind and of being able
to call it back at will. An advocate should possess tenacious memory. If he
fails to do so then he will be a failure.
13)
Study of Law Reports and citation of authorities:
An
advocate should read the current Law Reports to keep his knowledge up to date.
The Law Journal and reports published the case laws and articles on law issues
are very helpful in keeping your knowledge up to date. An advocate should not
only study the Law Reports he should also preserve them to refer again and
again and produce in the court in support of his arguments. He should quote the
applicable citations. He should always take care of citing the latest authority
on a particular point. If the decision of the Supreme Court is there which
support his case then he should present the decision of the Supreme Court instead
of the decisions of lower courts. He should skillfully select the correct and suitable
one among several decisions. The citation he is using should be written in précised
manner.
14)
Research and healthy skepticism:
A
lawyer has to spend many hours preparing the case. They spend a lot of time
conducting research, preparing documents, and interviewing a witness. Every
successful advocate maintains a healthy skepticism. An advocate needs to be
aware of the fact that what he is being told might not represent the full
story. A common error that almost every seasoned lawyer has made at least once
involves believing someone without getting proper verification. If something
sounds ‘wrong’ or ‘off’, successful advocates take the time to verify the
information. Being a good advocate one should have the ability to research
quickly and effectively which is essential to understand his/her clients, their
needs, and preparing legal strategies.
15)
Comprehension and Analytical skills with Logical thinking ability:
To
be a great lawyer one should have comprehension skills which means one must have
the ability to comprise many topics and small details to study, so it is
important to absorb the information in an organized and sensible manner. Also
to become a successful lawyer, one should have the ability to look at any
situation and analyze it from all the points of view. A criminal defense
advocate has to look at the case from the view of the prosecutor, and vice
versa. To absorb large volumes of data and be able to distill it into something
manageable, you need to have analytical skills, and this goes without saying.
16)
Decision making and judgment:
At
times, lawyers are required to make judgments, both for themselves and for
their clients. For instance, a lawyer may have to decide whether a legal claim
is worth pursuing at all. A good lawyer should have the ability to draw
reasonable, logical conclusions or assumptions from limited information.
Anticipate and spot the possible event and happening, analyze the positive and
negative areas of the case to prepare the same in such a manner that is
beneficial and in the favour, and take into consideration the interest of the
client. Alternatively, an advocate may be involved deep in settlement
negotiations and their client may ask them for their opinion on a proposed
deal. To be clear, the client is ultimately responsible for making a choice,
but it’s the lawyer’s job to make sure that the client knows and understands
all relevant information so that they can make an informed decision.
17)
Manner in court:
As
the duties of the practicing lawyer state, an advocate should maintain calmness
he should be respectable to the court. Lawyers should never interrupt the
Judge when he speaks but should wait for the judge to complete his statement. When
asked by the judge, the lawyer should politely give his answers. Advocates should argue logically but not confront or quarrel when permitted by the Judge.
So
these are the equipments and skills of an advocate to be successful in his
profession. To know the references and to read more articles related to Professional
ethics and professional accounting system please visit this page " Legal
Profession: Professional Ethics and Professional accounting system.
Thanks
for reading till the end. Please share this with all legal professionals.
