Lawyers' Skills

Abstract

Lawyers’ Skills helps students develop the legal skills required for successful practice in the modern solicitors’ firm. The book equips students with a solid understanding of the theory and concepts underpinning the key skills areas of legal writing and drafting, interviewing and advising, practical legal research, and advocacy, enabling students to develop, practise, and refine the legal skills they will depend on throughout their professional career. It goes beyond coverage of the assessed skills, providing guidance on a range of professional skills that should be mastered before going into practice, including effective time management, negotiation, and email etiquette. The inclusion of realistic examples from practice, tasks, and reflective exercises reflects the interactive nature of skills as a subject and encourages students to develop, practice, and refine their legal skills. Chapter summaries, diagrams, and self-test questions are also featured throughout and provide additional learning support to students. The text is essential reading for all LPC students and is also a useful source of reference for practitioners wishing to refresh their legal skills. After an introduction, the book covers: interviewing and advising; legal writing; drafting legal documents; legal research; practical problem-solving; negotiation; advocacy and the solicitor; managing your workload; and continuing your learning.

Justice on the line? A comparison of telephone and face-to-face advice in social welfare legal aid

“…This is the first stage in the initial lawyer-client interview. It is fundamental to the clientcentred approach to interviewing that the client should be able to explain their problem in their own words with minimal interruptions from the lawyer (Sherr, 1999;Elkington et al, 2014;Buck et al, 2010;Slorach et al, 2015;Webb et al, 2013). Lawyers are required to 'actively listen' to clients (Binder et al, 2011: 40-48).…”