Did you know that law graduates can have a wide variety of potential careers? Of course, the most popular career path is to be a lawyer. Being a lawyer can be an incredibly rewarding career path, but you’ll need to have certain qualities if you want to be successful.
So what are the skills and attitudes you’ll need to have if you want a successful career in law? This article lists seven of the key characteristics you’ll need if you want to get ahead in the lawyer job market.
1. You Know How to Argue
One of the most important parts of being a lawyer is knowing how to argue. In court, you’ll need to have absolute confidence in yourself to convincingly argue a case. For example, if you worked for Alpha Accident Lawyers, you’d need to be able to make a variety of different arguments about culpability in auto accidents.
If you’re somehow who’s always able to weigh up the merits of an argument and carefully consider the opinions from each side, you could be well suited to working in law.
2. You Have a Good Memory
Another quality that would make you a successful lawyer is having a good memory. A good memory is a vital part of being a lawyer because you’ll need to have an extremely good knowledge of the law.
Not only is having a good memory essential to being a practicing lawyer, but it’s also necessary if you want to pass the bar exam. The bar exam if an extremely difficult test that you’ll need to pass to become a licensed lawyer. You’ll absolutely need to have a great memory if you want to be successful.
3. You’re a People Person
If you want to be a lawyer, you’ll absolutely need to be a people person. Being a lawyer means you’ll need to deal with people a lot. If those people are involved in a legal case, they could be quite stressed out.
This means that a lot of your interactions with people could get quite heated. You’ll need to be skilled in making people feel at ease and helping to treasure them when things don’t go their way.
If you want to advance your legal career, you’ll also need to be comfortable with networking with other people. No matter how good of a lawyer you are, you won’t climb the ladder if you don’t have the ability to network with others.
4. You Have Attention to Detail
You’ll also need to have incredible attention to detail if you want to become a lawyer. Being a lawyer is very challenging for many reasons, but one of the big reasons is that you need to pick out all of the key details in a case.
When you’re arguing a legal case, it’s the small details that could make all the difference between you winning and losing a case. The law is extremely complex so you’ll need to pay close attention to everything if you want to get the best results for your clients.
5. You Like Public Speaking
While you’ll need to have great knowledge of the law, you won’t get very far as a lawyer if you’re not comfortable with public speaking. Whether you’re addressing your clients or arguing a case, you absolutely need to be articulate and good at explaining complex legal language in a way the average person can understand.
If you’re someone who gets nervous when speaking in front of a crowd, being a lawyer might not be the best career choice for you. With that said, public speaking is absolutely a skill you can develop throughout your career. Don’t worry if you still get nervous talking in front of a crowd in the early stages of your career.
6. You are Good at Studying and Researching
A quality lawyer has fantastic research skills. A good lawyer learns these skills by studying for the bar exam. Being a lawyer isn’t like other professions where your study skills don’t matter much after you graduate.
A lawyer always needs to study the law to argue a case. Those that have the best study skills will find unique arguments in the law that they can use to benefit their clients.
If you’re someone who doesn’t fare well when it comes to studying for exams, you probably won’t cut it as a lawyer. Again, this is a skill that you will develop throughout your professional career, so don’t worry if your study skills are lacking while you’re in early education.
7. You Believe in Law and Justice
Finally, being a lawyer might be the perfect career for you if you believe in the power of law and justice. The law is what enables us to live in a civilized society, and for the law to work for everyone, there need to be good lawyers.
Being a lawyer can be a difficult career. The good news is that it can also be a very rewarding one. As long as you’re passionate about the law and believe in the power of justice, you’ll find being a lawyer is an incredibly fulfilling way to earn a living.
You Could Start a Career in Law
Do you feel like you recognize these qualities in yourself? In that case, you might try and start a career in law for yourself. The first step involves getting an education and passing the bar exam.
You’ll need to have great attention to detail and research skills, and you’ll also need to be someone who is comfortable talking to people (especially in public). Given that you’ll be working in a high-pressure environment, you also need to have a genuine passion for law and justice.
If you want to learn more about some other topics related to work and careers, check out the rest of our blog posts.
