When people talk about communication skills, they often find it difficult to categorize the information. So for the sake of organization, let's narrow the areas lawyers want to develop into 3 key categories:
- Interpersonal communication skills
- Intrapersonal communication skills
- Public speaking skills
For most of the non-podium public, the
first area of communication skills that comes to mind is the set that focuses externally on relationships around us -
interpersonal communication skills. These skills assist with ease in conversation, attraction, trust-building as well as competence. One would think lawyers come by these skills easily.
However, 64% of lawyers are introverts - an attribute of their desire to research, to analyze, to write and to weigh the pros and cons. While these gifts are useful for crafting their argument and understanding the law, many areas of a lawyer's practice remains under-developed when they avoid developing their interpersonal skills.
