The value of soft skills: what is important for a lawyer’s work

We are increasingly hearing in the media about the value of soft skills, and about how, when selecting job candidates and contractors – particularly when choosing a lawyer – soft skills generally take precedence over professional qualities.

Let’s take a look at what soft skills actually are and why we are seeing these trends.

Soft skills include communication, critical thinking, emotional intelligence and so on. They often determine how effectively a person can integrate into a team, manage projects and interact with clients.

Various studies show that competencies such as adaptability, stress resilience and relationship management are often crucial to professional success, particularly in dynamic or client-focused fields.

This is also reflected in the educational process. Law programmes are adapting and increasingly incorporate training in soft skills, such as negotiation, strategic thinking, conflict resolution, effective time management and so on. In other words, young lawyers, provided they study diligently, have a certain advantage, and those who have been in the profession for some time cannot afford to fall behind.

Soft skills have always been important for lawyers, so why is their role growing even further now?

As with any social process, there is no single answer. However, I believe that in this context it is worth analysing the impact of digitalisation and artificial intelligence.

Many articles have already been written, and issues such as the ethics of using artificial intelligence in legal practice, confidentiality, data protection and so on are being raised at various levels.

But I would like to look at artificial intelligence specifically from the client’s perspective and in terms of the client’s relationship with their lawyer. Questions regarding the future and exactly how artificial intelligence should or should not be used are very important; however, the fact remains that artificial intelligence is currently being used by both clients and lawyers, and this is already having consequences today.

Every lawyer reading this article has heard clients say things like: ‘I Googled it… I listened to a podcast… I’m subscribed to… and he/she said that…’ and so on.

Information is becoming more accessible. And unlike a standard search for information, artificial intelligence also provides people with clarification, analysis and explanations in a way that is easy to understand.

But can it replace lawyers?

It is my firm belief that it can only do so in very simple, straightforward matters.

And the reason lies precisely in the soft skills possessed by a human being, by a flesh-and-blood lawyer. Neither search engines nor artificial intelligence possess these (at least not yet).

Therefore, if an issue is truly important to a client, they will seek legal assistance and expect a lawyer to possess precisely that combination of professional and human qualities.

So why is emotional intelligence so important in a lawyer’s work?

Generally speaking, emotional intelligence comprises the following main components:

1. Self-awareness (self-assessment);
2. Self-regulation;
3. Motivation;
4. Empathy;
5. Social skills.

Similarly, each of these major components is broken down into more detailed elements, which can be worked on individually and which are important to understand in order to gain a deep understanding of emotional intelligence.

The foundation and basis of emotional intelligence is a person’s stable self-esteem (specifically ‘stable’, rather than ‘high’, ‘low’, ‘objective’ and so on). It is precisely this stability of self-esteem that enables a lawyer to make well-considered decisions and advise a client, guided solely by the client’s interests, rather than by a desire to assert themselves at the client’s expense.

Therefore, stable self-esteem is the number one priority for a lawyer.

I consider it essential to place empathy second in importance, as it plays a huge role in building long-term, partnership-based relationships with clients.

Usually, a person seeking legal assistance is not a legal expert; at the same time, they may be under stress or, conversely, in a very optimistic frame of mind. This combination often makes it difficult to make well-considered decisions or to ask the right questions of the lawyer and of oneself. The client does not always know exactly what they want.

Consequently, the lawyer’s role in this regard is to ask the client the right questions; by answering these, the client will come to understand their own wishes and their vision of the outcome, and visualise the path they wish to take to achieve their goal.

This is what empathy is — the ability to put oneself in another person’s shoes and, as a result, help the client understand the situation and understand themselves. I personally often find myself in situations where a client asks, ‘What should I do?’, and when I respond with the question, ‘What outcome are you looking for?’, the client pauses to think.

Empathy, therefore, enables lawyers to better understand their clients’ emotional state and needs, which in turn helps them analyse their problems more thoroughly and formulate more effective strategies for providing legal assistance.

When a client senses genuine empathy from their lawyer, they become more open and trusting, which enhances the effectiveness of the legal assistance provided, facilitates cooperation, and makes the collaboration a positive experience for both parties.

Lawyers are human too, and working in an environment of mistrust or a lack of understanding of the client’s needs is stressful and can lead to burnout. And given that, under such conditions, the outcome of the services does not always meet expectations, it can be confidently stated that without the active use of emotional intelligence—in particular, empathy—a lawyer’s work will be ineffective.

Other components of emotional intelligence, such as self-regulation, motivation and social skills, are also very important, and developing them will improve a lawyer’s position at work or in the legal services market.

When we talk about motivation and self-regulation, we are referring to a person’s inner world, their ability to motivate themselves and others, to draw on their own resources, to manage their emotions and states of mind, and to use emotions as allies rather than enemies.

These are not merely important; they are vital skills and abilities.

As for social effectiveness, this is the ability to project one’s inner world and inner states outwards, and to do so in a way that exerts the desired influence on those around them. In other words, when we talk about social effectiveness, we mean the ability to manage conflicts, manage relationships, take responsibility for oneself and others, and manage one’s ego without allowing it to cause harm, and so on.

There are some interesting books on emotional intelligence that I can recommend: ‘Emotional Intelligence’ by Daniel Goleman; ‘Emotional Literacy: How to Understand and Develop Your Emotional Intelligence’ by John Maynard; *Empathy: How to Understand Others and Improve Relationships* by Rosemartin Lee.

In fact, emotional intelligence is a skill that you can develop and improve. We are all different and start from different places, but by focusing on a few small areas where we can improve, great success will not be long in coming.

To sum up all of the above, it is worth asking ourselves: what role does emotional intelligence play in today’s world?

And the answer is quite clear. It is emotional intelligence that distinguishes people from machines, and it is precisely because of this that people turn to qualified lawyers rather than relying on artificial intelligence. Therefore, today’s lawyer must develop their emotional intelligence and soft skills, as this is no longer merely a competitive advantage over other lawyers – it is a necessity.

As the Rabbit said in Lewis Carroll’s novel *Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland*: ‘You have to run as fast as you can just to stay in the same place. And to get anywhere, you have to run at least twice as fast.’

Change is part of our lives, and the further we go, the more dynamic it becomes. Adapting to it is a matter of survival. Seeking out and creating competitive advantages, both in relation to other lawyers and in relation to artificial intelligence as a competitor, must be part of our day-to-day work, as this contributes to the development of each individual lawyer and the legal profession as a whole.

Read the article on the “Yurydychna Gazeta” website here.