AttorneyMentoring.com Not-For_Profit Communication Delegation Skills

Communicate clearly and effectively

Whatever area of law you practice, your communication skills impact your delivery of legal services, your advocacy on
behalf of clients, your relations with your colleagues and superiors, and your client development skills among other
aspects of your life. As with any skill, practice improves your ability to communicate clearly and effectively. Some basic
tips to improving your communication skills include:

Understand your audience and their business. Place yourself in their shoes so to speak and anticipate their
needs and expectations. Then, try and meet them.
Make the message clear. Lawyers have a very bad habit of speaking in complex language that is often
meaningless to clients or just repeating the issues ad infinitum without a clear plan to solving the issue.
Communicate so that both speaker and audience are on the same page.
Confirm that your audience hears the same message that you believe you are delivering. Make sure your
choice of words cannot be misinterpreted.
Ensure a logical flow from beginning to end. Set up the problem and then solve it. Test the arguments out with
colleagues or tape your presentation and listen to it.
Make the communication interesting, practical and worth the audience's time.
Match your message with your body language. Try it out in front of a mirror first.
Listen. Communication is a two way street. Being in your own legal world does not serve you, your clients or your
audience. Listen to them carefully and you will invariably provide them with a better service.

Click here to read an article about achieving better communications through personality typing.

If you feel that you need more personalized help with your communication skills, consider hiring a coach for more
important presentations or to help you develop a client pitch presentation or courtroom argument.

Know how to delegate and supervise

It is important to maximize the human and technological resources available to you so that you can free up time to grow
your practice and enjoy a personal life. Knowing how and when to delegate is a key component to maximizing your time
and growing your practice. As you advance in your career, you will experience ever growing pressure to balance time
between client service and client development. There is often a critical juncture in a legal career, typically at the mid to
senior level, where attorneys struggle to transition to a more supervisory role. With that comes the responsibility of
supervising other attorneys and professional staff. Attorneys also have to be mindful of added ethical considerations
when delegating and supervising legal work.

Some attorneys resist delegating because they believe they need the billing hours to meet their firm’s annual billing
requirements while others are simply afraid to let go of a particular project believing that only they can do it correctly.
Others believe it takes too much time and effort to delegate and then review the work afterward. They just do not have the
time to manage yet another person. At first, all these positions can be valid reasons to resist delegating but in the long
run, the only way to stretch your time is to delegate. The sooner you learn how to do it, the better. Delegating can be one
of your best tools to a successful career. If you clearly articulate the task and take the time to train your delegee and
properly review the work, you will come to rely on delegation. You will also be motivating your staff and junior attorneys,
an important role for senior attorneys.

Knowing what to delegate is an important skill. You can start by delegating simple projects such as recurring
filings, basic agreements, cover letters, and one issue research projects. Make a list of all your work and
assignments and look at what you can safely delegate to others, making sure you make time to review their work
before it is sent to the client or to a senior attorney.
Provide proper instruction to your delegee, including background information, client memos, suggestions for
how to tackle the project, research resources or sample documents, and a clear timetable for review and
completion. Encourage outlines and make yourself available for questions throughout the process. Check in
every so often to check on progress. Do not wait until the end of the project to provide feedback. Do not micro-
manage.
Utilize technology to your advantage. Sometimes, software can help transform a complex task into a simple
one. There are an ever increasing number of tools designed for lawyers and law firms. Check with your
technology department or go online and see whether there are available systems or templates to help you with
your project. Do not re-invent the wheel.
Give constructive feedback. First, point out what the delegee did correctly and then indicate areas where they
could improve. Be specific. Do not take your frustration out on others. No matter what level of stress you may be
under, it is never helpful to take it out on others.
Take responsibility for the work. In a supervisory role, take responsibility for the wok final product. If the delegee
failed to achieve your ideal results, consider whether you were clear in your instructions first. Ask the delegee
what issues they encountered. Keep these in mind for future reference. Effective delegation also delivers a more
cost-effective service to the client in an environment with ever increasing pressure to reduce legal fees.
Don’t stop at your professional life. Consider areas of your personal life which could benefit from delegation as
well. Sometimes the benefits of delegation far out weigh the expense. Consider how much you bill per hour and
figure out what it is costing you to do your laundry or prepare and file your taxes.

Find an internal sponsor or mentor

Regardless of whether you are a junior, mid-level or senior attorney, your relationships with senior management will
directly impact your opportunities for advancement. Make sure that you are perceived as a valuable asset to your legal
and non-legal managers: someone always willing to help out when needed; someone who pro-actively offers to help
rather than hides in his or her office waiting for the next assignment. Seek out senior management who can mentor
you. Try and work with as many different senior personnel as you can. Here are a few tips for dealing with senior lawyers
or management (these tips work with both legal and non-legal senior management):

Ask questions up front; understand your assignment before you start work.
Do not be afraid to ask for assistance or guidance (at the right time, of course).
Understand the time-frame and budget and meet both.
Keep other parties to a project informed of material events and progress.
Always appear to enjoy your work, no matter how mundane.
Review your work carefully before it leaves your hand.
Build a reputation for integrity and a solid work ethic.
Study the habits of the successful attorneys and business people in your company.
Ask for constructive feedback.

Stay informed and well-trained

The most successful lawyers are always on top of the latest legal news and trends. They are voracious consumers of
continuing legal education and avid readers of legal news. Make sure that you make an investment in yourself each year,
regardless of your resources, and subscribe to key online or offline legal resources to support your practice. Take as
many continuing legal courses as you can from the best providers. Avoid easy and cheap CLE that yields little new
practical legal information for you. Attend the conferences, or if your resources are limited, order the tapes following the
conference. If you cannot afford to subscribe to certain key resources on your own, contact your Bar’s library for these
sources.