What Does It Take to Be a Good Lawyer? The Underpinnings of Success in a Rapidly Growing Legal Market

Abstract

The study identified the principal professional domains leading to success in legal professions. Based on a sample of 300 Polish attorneys, with the use of confirmatory factor analysis and 22 specific items, four principal domains of success were discerned—professional skills, marketing skills, reputation, and ethics. The evolution of these domains in Poland between 2005 and 2017 was examined, revealing that the importance of marketing skills significantly increased, while the remaining three domains lost importance over the study period. The results also indicated that legal professionals were more inclined to value professional skills, marketing skills, and ethics when their clients had an ability to measure the quality of legal service provided. The same domains transpired as important for lawyers, who attributed high importance to the role of the bar.