We all wonder what are the Skills Required for a Law Student to be Successful in the field of Law? Here’s a few of them which you cannot ignore, read this article by Dibakar Banerjee, a young law student to find out. I. Introduction Many law students dream of entering into a prime business firm job and others… Read More »

We all wonder what are the Skills Required for a Law Student to be Successful in the field of Law? Here’s a few of them which you cannot ignore, read this article by Dibakar Banerjee, a young law student to find out.

I. Introduction

Many law students dream of entering into a prime business firm job and others dream of changing into a good litigator. Several freshers get jobs in business firms however they’re not capable of continuing it as they do not have the talents that the companies wish from them. It’s not that companies aren’t hiring or that firms aren’t trying to find young, bright lawyers, still tons of young lawyers struggle for many years, making an attempt to induce opportunities that suit their talent.

Talent and ability are two various things. Ability is tough to ignore, whereas talent alone is tough to reward. The largest downside with legal education is that it doesn’t prepare students to handle the sensible and strategic aspects of legal work.

The colleges don’t teach the particular necessity of drafting and importance of the economic contract, but really this comes into use once you step into the real world of law and start practicing in a law firm. If you are part of a business firm then initial few years you would like to struggle and you need to cover your weak components, learn from the seniors, it isn’t solely you even the foremost sensible lawyers therefore struggle within the initial few years of their career.

In fact, not everybody survives, several leaves harassed, and many get fired. This is not necessary that you will suffer and struggle in the initial year’s to survive. But we suffer and struggle because of the contributor of the current development where the law faculties do not prepare you for the sensible and strategic aspect of legal work.

If you get sensible and effective coaching in faculty or at an early age then heaps of hassle are often avoided. If you concentrate on the sure facet of your talent development as a professional right away, it’ll create a large distinction as however, and on what note you get started.

II. The skills which will create a large distinction to wherever you begin your career as a professional or in a legal firm:-

A. Negotiation

Negotiating is one of those skills that lawyers should develop if they really need to be counted amongst the most effective within the Profession. The most effective professionals are usually are known for his or her effective court craft or drafting skills, which are the fundamental requirements. However, well they talk over with the alternative party across the table. A decent treater is trustworthy with the largest opportunities and difficult tasks that see such a person mechanically rising through the ranks very quickly.

  • For a decent negotiation, you need to have good data of English and your communication skills must be sturdy and if you’re weak therein you need to try and fix it up.
  • You need to attain a law event to spice up your confidence and participate in moot courts.
  • In a legal context, you need to know the subject of the negotiation very well, don’t always base it on the thorough preparation that you made but you need to be clever and know how to change words while discussing and it will come with practice and experience. Many people rush and talk fast while they negotiate but you need to be calm and respond patiently that will give weight to the words that you will speak.
  • One of the important factors is to listen and understand what your opposite negotiation partner wants to tell you. While negotiating be sure you take notes throughout the process and if there is any agreement make sure it is documented to avoid confusion. At last practice, practice and practice is the key to get success in the negotiation skill, the more you negotiate the more you will gather knowledge and be an experienced negotiator.

Arrive at a compromise in subsiding a dispute in a very approach that is most useful to the client, Achieve the most effective potential outcome for the client while not having to resort to the proceeding.

Obtain enough info from the opposite party to succeed in a possible resolution.

If you’re not capable of doing this in negotiations, and not having nice negotiation skills then it could be a drawback.

B. Drafting

Drafting is one among the foremost intellectually exacting of all lawyering skills. It needs data of the law, the flexibility to handle abstract ideas, and should have structure skills.

Legal drafting skills being with having a robust command over the language. A professional should connect his words like pearls in a string.

As a young lawyer, you need to learn the talent of drafting at an early age. As a result of graduation once you step into the real world of law it will be terribly useful for growth in your career. The talent to draft well is that the skills to suppose and communicate well.

A professional equipped with legal drafting skills is in a position to spot his client. Your drafting must cover all the aspects that your client wants to keep. The content of a legal instrument should be understood by the party who is reading it. Legal drafting skills conjointly embody the art of drafting authentic documents, you need to draft your documents by yourself not by repeating from some templates, every statement created should be supported by case law, precedent, or statute.

So these skills are necessary for a young professional. Drafting should be crisp and clear and straightforward to scan and interpret. Drafting should be in simple language, sentence, and use of layman’s terms.

Some tips that you all can do for drafting are:

  1. Plan your documents before you begin
  • Defining the aim of the documents in an exceedingly case or legal issue.
  • Organize your documents resources to confirm they’re existing for all technical details.
  • Write with Clear and summary Language and continuously keeps your phrase structure short and summary in legal writing. Try and avoid the utilization of long, complicated words once easier various can do.
  • Write sentences with efficiency and keep things to the purpose, and can be understood by a layman.
  1. Ensure the correct use of synchronic linguistics
  • The correct use of synchronic linguistics and orthography is imperative for all skilled documentation. However synchronic linguistics is particularly necessary for ambiguity in legal writing.
  • Be as correct as attainable and maintain the accuracy of the facts. Accuracy may be an important part of the task, certifying that each one of the documents that have been submitted and attached is valid any invalid documents will create trouble.
  • Make data accessible and relevant to the research. Legal documents tend to be long and time-intensive to each compile and browse, creating it straightforward to the reader by shaping necessary sections of the documents for simple reference.
  • Always use a full of life voice because using the active voice in your writing is important for eliminating confusion. essentially it outlines who should perform what in an exceeding sentence.

C. Legal Research

If you work in a law firm, then you must know the legal research because you will need during your work for understanding the case and for making a brief of it.

One might wonder, so then, legal research is such an indispensable skill but we did not give attention to this which develop a lack of this skill in law students.

Given below are some tips to develop legal research skills:

  1. Inculcate the habit of reading legal blogs, case laws to stay updated

Knowledge is the power of every legal professional they need to be constantly updated with recent cases and decisions. Effective reading is an essential part of the research for Understanding the case. The vital part is to be selective while reading. The task of research is multi-layered which begins from the base level looking for information, selecting, noting, and interpreting relevant information, and applying it for different purposes.

  1. Be creative

Successful lawyers know they need to be creative now and then. Creativity helps with problem-solving, thinking on spot, and finding ways to manoeuvre through court cases. Let yourself be as creative as you grow.

III. Conclusion

So it’s never late to start. If from now onwards young lawyers start practicing these skills and develop themselves and offer the service in a better way that the company’s want from them, then they can easily get jobs in big law firms and establish themselves well. All the skills that we talked about like Communication skill, a good hold in English, Negotiation skill, a good legal researcher, and at last the most important drafting skill, all emerging lawyers must keep in their mind. As Rome was not built in a day like that only these skills will only be perfect with practice.

Law is such a field where the skills of lawyers play a vital role, the lawyer may be from a top law University but if he doesn’t have the skills then he will not be able to succeed in a law career, on the other hand, a non-NLU normal law college student can achieve great success in law for his skills. So it totally depends on you that how you will make yourself better than others.


  1. Law Library: Notes and Study Material for LLB, LLM, Judiciary and Entrance Exams
  2. Legal Bites Academy – Ultimate Test Prep Destination
Updated On 13 March 2021 12:09 AM GMT
Dibakar Banerjee

Dibakar Banerjee

Student, Law College, Durgapur

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