We all work with various types of matters and no two matters are identical. Solid EQ skills help us to accurately assess the strengths and limits of ourselves and our lawyers in order to apply that information in ways that are strategic and advantageous to our legal practice. For example, EQ skills could fine-tune our awareness of who deals best with certain clients (including difficult or challenging clients) and who works well as a negotiator. (We will look at being a negotiator later in this course.) These are important observations as we can utilise this information to train our lawyers (and ourselves) for the acquisition of knowledge, skills and even behaviours.
How our EQ benefits our clients
Having a workplace that is supportive and balanced is only part of the equation. We have to be able to carry our emotional intelligence to our clients. Let us first take a look at what a high EQ means when dealing with clients.
Clients who feel they are understood are more likely to trust their lawyer’s advice. The more they trust their lawyer, the more clients are apt to stay with or come back to their lawyer in the future. This requires lawyers to be able to …show more content…
Ideally, for the reasons outlined earlier in this course, changes should begin during law school. Students should be nurtured and instructed in the valuable skills on emotional intelligence. For example, law students should not only be taught legal concepts and how to apply them; they should also be taught to question why and learn more “soft skills”. Indeed, it would be wonderful if more law schools ensure their students learn skills that will help them exhibit emotional resilience and strength they will need to not only survive, but also thrive, in the legal