What Makes a Great Lawyer: 3 Signs that Actually Help

Choosing a career path is one of the most challenging choices you will have to make in your lifetime. Not everyone sticks to the career path they choose in their youth, as it is possible to switch over after you have chosen one study or path. When one studies in school, there are certain subjects that stand out to us, yet only by delving deep into the study can you truly assess whether or not you enjoy or will be any good in this career path. 

It is essential that you have both passion and the skills to do your job so that you keep growing and developing. For instance, lawyers need to have a certain set of traits that make them excel at their jobs. Those include judgment, communication, and perseverance; read on below to discover why each of these is essential.

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1. Good Judgement

One of the primary qualities you should have as a lawyer is a good judgment. You need the judgment to assess whether your plaintiff or defendant is innocent or guilty. There are two routes for an attorney; either they choose cases where there is enough evidence for them to acquit or clear the case and believe their plaintiff/defendant is innocent, or choose to defend or prosecute regardless of their personal beliefs. Yet it is more likely that a lawyer will fight harder for those they believe to be innocent. This ultimately depends on your judgment of that person, especially if there is not enough evidence to begin with.

1. Communication Skills

There are basically two jobs that a lawyer has: researching and talking to people on the surface. Some lawyers fail due to their lack of communication skills and the capacity to convince people of their arguments. Even if people have excellent research and have done half of the job perfectly, the other half, the one that speaks to the judge and jury if there is one, must be executed just as well, if not better. In some cases, the research is not enough to clear the case, so communication and exceptional spoken words are necessary. Some cases can be quite sensitive, too, so making sure that you use the right words to handle the situation delicately is of the essence.

1.  Perseverance

Unlike law-related series that we watch on our televisions that end cases in a matter of one or two episodes, some real-life cases can take years and even decades to come to a conclusion. The longest trial in history took about seven years and resulted in no convictions, and clearly required a lot of perseverance and patience. According to the lawyers at www.terry-lawfirm.com,  those convicted but are innocent require passionate lawyers who can persevere to find them a way out and enough evidence to exonerate them. Without perseverance, many innocents stay in jail for numerous years for absolutely no reason.

Questions to Ask Yourself:

There are questions that you have to ask yourself in order to understand whether you are already skilled enough to become a lawyer or not.

Are you a thorough researcher?

You and possibly a set of paralegals will be doing a lot of research in this job and hunting down information from all over the internet. You may need to hunt down witnesses as well and get enough information to win your case. You’ll also need to look through many cases to find exceptions and compare them to yours.

Are you a “people-person”?

If you have been referred to as a people person, then that is essential as you constantly need to win people over. That includes the person who hired you, your employers, the judge, and the jury. Your communication and sociability need to be top-notch.

Can you defend your arguments fully?

For some lawyers, the other side’s case can be so strong that they start questioning themselves and their own side of the case. Ask yourself if you are the type of person who will stand their ground no matter the situation. Because this profession will certainly place you in a broad range of uncomfortable events.

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If you have all three and all questions happen to be applicable to you, then being a lawyer is most likely a great career option. Yet you must endure a lot in order to become a successful lawyer. Not everyone passes the bar exam as it is difficult and takes months and sometimes even years to study for. 

This is where passion will trump all difficulties and get you through those tough times. Do your research on what being a lawyer and studying to be an attorney at law is actually like, as well as which university and law school would be optimum for you. As a future attorney, this research should be done diligently as not all law firms take students from any university.