SKILLS OF ADVOCATES

Sasi K.G.

01. Introduction

Apart from the “Seven Lamps of Advocacy” of (i) Honesty (ii) Courage (iii) Industry (iv)wit, (v)Eloquence, (vi) Judgement and (vii) Fellowship and the Panchsheel of advocates referring to (i) Honesty (ii) industry (iii) justice (iv)  Service and (v) Philosophy, Advocates need various other skills for the success of their profession. These skills have both born and brought up aspects, but the combination of some of these is a necessary story behind all successful advocates.

02. Major Classification of advocate skills

Advocate shills may be broadly classified into five namely

1)      Court management skills

2)      Client management skills

3)      Case management skills

4)      Personal management skills and

5)      Professional management skills

Let us consider each of them in detail.

03. Court management skills

The following Court Management Skills are inevitable for a successful advocate.

01. Advocating skills

Advocacy is a type of problem solving designed to protect personal, legal and social rights, and to insure a dignified existence to the client whom the advocate represents. Effective advocacy is built on a broad based analytical approach to problem solving and involves all other skills of advocates also.

02. Assertive skills

Advocates must present the case assertively and must not have any element of doubt in what they say. This skill plays great role in winning cases.

03. Communication skills

Proper verbal and nonverbal communication skills is very important in the presentation of the case before the Bench.

04. Drafting skills

Drafting is the major means by which a party to a litigation can properly present his case through a legal language.

05. Due respect to the Court

Due respect to the Court is a necessity of an advocate while he is both inside and outside the court room. Lack of the same may even put an end to his practice and punish him.

06. Learning skills

An advocate is addressed by the Court as learned advocate, as the presumption is that all advocates are learned advocates. Steady interest in acquiring and updating knowledge is the most important skill of an advocate.

07. Making Issues Local and Relevant

Making the issues local and relevant, adapting them to the constraints of the laws of land is most essential in convincing the court.

08. Oral advocacy skills

Oral advocacy skills as the situation demands in the various steps and procedures of the judicial process is a must for an advocate.

09. Persuasive Skills

Without Persuasive Skills, an advocate cannot convince a Judge on the merits of his averments and views.

10. Pleading Skills

Fully developed pleading skills are really a boon to the success of all advocates.

11. Sound judgment

A sound judgment on the facts, circumstances, issues, the law involved and the stand taken by his client is necessary for an advocate in managing the Court.

12. Speaking skills

Speaking skills fit for the Court and its decorum are essential for an advocate to win his case.

13. Trial skills

As evidence is everything in a case before a Court, and as trial is the procedure for the verification of such evidence, proper trial skills to prove his client’s case and to disprove his opponent’s case is essential for an advocate.

04. Client management skills

The following Client Management Skills are inevitable for a successful advocate.

01. Accountability

Accountability to the Court and the client is the primary skill that an advocate must develop.

02. Client understanding skills

An advocate must have proper skills to understand the personality, capacity, grievances and requirements of his client.

03. Counseling skills

Counseling skills is very useful for the relaxation of the anxieties of the client, for making his expectation reasonable and for his proper understanding of the law.

04. Dependability

A client dislikes an advocate who cannot be depended upon.

05. Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is necessary for an advocate to interact properly with his client, opponent and the witnesses and other individuals involved in a case.

06. Identifying needs of clients

An advocate must identify the needs of his clients. If the client thinks one thing, advocate presents another and the Court adjudges understanding differently, the interests of justice shall be defeated.

07. Listening skills

Without proper listening of all necessary parties involved, an advocate may not decide the course of litigation he is undertaking. Proper listening skills improve the quality of proper understanding of the various facets of the case.

08. Belief in the good in humanity

If the understanding of the advocate is that his client is immoral or anti-social, it may not be easy for him to represent his client. An advocate must believe in the good in his client also and must feel sympathy to the circumstances under which he was forced to commit an offence, if any.

09. Loyalty

An advocate must be loyal to his client and must not betray him.

10. Negotiation skills

Negotiation skills often put an end to the rivalry between the parties in a litigation and may save the time and efforts of the parties involved and shall promote the interests of justice.

11. Trust-building

Trust-building is a skill whereby the client may reveal all the facts and motivations of the case, and subsequently enhance the chance of winning the case.

05. Case Management Skills

The following Case Management Skills are inevitable for a successful advocate.

01. Analytical thinking skills

Analytical thinking by breaking down a series of complex bits of information and step-by-step developing to an overall conclusion, answer or solution is essential in case management. Analytical thinking skills need perpetual updating.

02. Data collection skills

Data collection is an essential part of case analysis and data collection skills enhances better presentation of litigation or its defense.

03. General Investigation Skills

General Investigation Skills are necessary for gathering required data for the determination of the course of averments and their presentation.

04. Issue spotting skills

Issue spotting skills help an advocate to present the case in summary and to avoid the complexity of the litigation.

05. Logical reasoning skills

Logical reasoning is the soul of legal thought and the skills in this regard are always necessary to convince the court the merit of the case.

06. Proper Follow up

Proper Follow up is inevitable for taking proper steps and appropriate time and to guard against the case being disposed ex-parte or decided against the client.

07. Research skills

Research skills are necessary to estimate and update the present position of law and to apply it properly to the given situation.

08. Right question asking skills

Only right questions give right answers. Asking right questions is a skill to be developed by an advocate to bring his case to the desired result.

09. Problem solving skills

Problem solving skills and methodologies are unavoidable to avoid adverse facts and legal position from the notice of the court and to bring selective and advantageous facts and laws.

10. Synthesizing skills

Lawyers must have the ability to organize large amounts of material in a meaningful, focused, and cogent manner. The complexities of many issues and the number of laws either directly or tangentially relevant make this kind of organization crucial.

11. Thinking out legal solutions and arguments

Thinking out legal solutions and arguments in a case after pre-contemplation and proper application of mind should be the habit of all advocates.

12. Working to a deadline or planning ahead

Working to a deadline or planning ahead is necessary to comply with the various legal time limits and requirements of Courts.

06. Personal Management Skills

01. Ambition

Many aspiring lawyers are extremely ambitious, determined and driven. Advocacy is a competitive business, and one should have a clear and realistic plan of where his career is heading him in the next five to ten years, and should know his true aspirations.

02. Commitment, dedication and passion to a legal career 

Commitment, dedication and passion to a legal career is the backbone of a successful advocate.

03. Creativity

Creativity to weave the known and the doubtful facts into a linear web leading into reasonable case is a boon of an advocate.

04. Curiosity

If without curiosity, many right questions elope from the consideration of the advocate.

05. Determination

Determination to win and to meet the ends of justice are real strength to an advocate.

06. Discipline

Discipline makes an advocate and the people around him to perform impossible tasks.

07. Enthusiasm and Energy 

Enthusiasm and Energy is inevitable to meet the endless challenges of an advocate in his profession.

08. Individuality

Individuality keeps an advocate desirable to his clients and often brings respect from his colleagues and even from the court.

09. Inquisitiveness

Inquisitiveness is the basic skill of an advocate enabling him to assess and analyze the case in full.

10. Integrity

An advocate without integrity is never approached twice for the services of the same client.

11. Interpersonal skills

Interpersonal skills maintain a cordial atmosphere around the professional domain of an advocate.

12. Language skills

Language skills are most essential for the proper presentation of the case.

13. Leadership skills

Leadership skills enables an advocate to bring his entire staff and the clients under the same umbrella and to offer them adequate security.

14. Opportunistic skills

An advocate should be able to make use of every opportunity that comes handy.

15. Perseverance

Perseverance and not being subjected to depressive moods keeps an advocate in the successful route

16. Positive Attitude

Positive Attitude and optimism are skills that an advocate must develop in order to face the challenges in his profession.

17. Professional work- personal life balance

Professional work and personal life should be balanced so that none of them are compromised on the price of the other.

18. Self-direction skills

Self-direction skills are critical in the success of lawyers, not only in their professional work, but also in identifying which of their personal skills and knowledge could be improved.

19. Self-motivation skills

Not only should an advocate need to be able to keep himself moving, but also to know he needs to work on. Self-identification and changing learning needs of every advocate are unique and likely to be constantly changing and Self-motivation skills alone are helpful here.

20. Sense of humour

Sense of humour relaxes the tension of the advocate, the people around him and even of the court if properly applied.

21. Survival skills

Survival skills are necessary in a challenging profession like advocacy which is always subjected to the dissatisfaction of the client, colleagues and the Court as well as the Government and the public at large.

22. Symptomatic Reading

Advocates will have to read a great deal of material such as court documents, witness testimony, contracts, case law, or a myriad of other text. Symptomatic reading skill allows the advocates to read case material symptomatically (critically). It safeguards the client from the repercussions from text that may have been written with things slanted with bias, implied statements, or hidden agendas. 

23. Thankfulness

Thankfulness to those offered a helping hand enables an advocate to accept further help.

24. Time management skills

Time management skills are essential in advocacy.

25. Working Long Hours

Working Long Hours is a skill that an advocate must develop and make as a habit.

26. Writing Skills

Writing Skills are essential in the profession of an advocate.

07. Professional Management Skills

01. Affinity to technological and social advances

Affinity to technological and social advances enhances performance of advocates.

02. Billing skills

Billing skills keep an advocate from bankruptcy.

03. Collaboration skills

Collaboration skills mean the ability to function in a multi-party work environment such that the process and outcome transcend the collective contribution. Lawyers who collaborate well possess the ability to identify and bring out the best others have to offer, to submerge their own positions and egos where necessary, in order to reach the optimal client outcome. Collaborative lawyers trust the wisdom of the group and don’t want to be lone wolves or isolationists.

04. Commercial skills

Commercial skills keep the firm of the advocates to progress gradually.

05. Financial skills

Financial skills enables an advocate to manage his firm with the earnings of the firm properly and to have his due financial gain.

06. Human resource management skills

Human management skills are necessary where others are employed in the legal profession.

07. Media skills

Media skills are necessary to promote the cause of the litigation taken up by the advocate and to avoid adverse propaganda. This may even promote the practice of the advocate.

08. Organization Management Skills

Organization Management Skills are necessary in case of large law firms.

09. People skills

People skills help an advocate to manage people to his advantage.

10. Professionalism

Professionalism in a law firm promotes its growth and income yielding capacity.

11. Project management skills

Project management skills are necessary for an advocate when taking up large cases.

12. Record keeping skills

Record keeping skills are necessary for an advocate to satisfy his legal commitments to the Government, his client, his partners and himself.

13. Risk management skills

Risk management skills are essential in a profession of unexpected income, chances for disciplinary action and contempt of court proceedings and heavy competition.

14. Teamwork skills

Team work skills are important because the type of work that an advocate tends to do is so big in scale and complexity that he is unlikely to be working on a project by himself, especially when he has to attend various courts on the same day.

15. Upholding the rule of law 

Upholding the rule of law is a skill an advocate should practice habitually.

16. Upselling skills

Upselling is a sales technique where a seller induces the customer to purchase more expensive items, upgrades or other add-ons in an attempt to make a more profitable sale. Advocates are professionals always upselling themselves. Advocates with close client contact will often suggest other courses of action, other defenses to approach, other research and analysis angles, other agreements to put in place, other services to consider, other advisors to contact etc.

08. Conclusion

The noble profession of advocacy is complex in nature and requires profound learning, large expertise and numerous skills. To achieve these an advocate should dedicate his entire life in the furtherance of the necessary skills and prove himself to be fit for his profession. Those who fail in the acquisition of these, may fail in the profession, but the skillful never faces defeat except by the more skilful.