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.
