What makes a successful professional? The answer is one who has the right educational qualifications and desired skills. A good blend of these two things contributes to shape a bright career in any field. In this blog post, you will get to explore the qualifications and skills that the employers of legal professionals are looking for in their recruits.

Qualifications

For many candidates, a legal career means being a barrister or a solicitor. However, there are other types of legal jobs as well such as law costs draftsmen, licensed conveyances, legal researcher and legal secretary.

The basic difference between barristers and solicitors is that the former are self-employed which the latter is not. In order to be a barrister or solicitor, at first, you need to have an undergraduate degree followed by graduation from a law school. After this, you will be required to pass the bar examination for the state where you want to practice. In most states, barristers are required to pass an ethics examination. The ethics examination is intended to test the knowledge base of the candidates in judicial conduct.

If you are interested in becoming a legal secretary, you should possess a high school diploma at the minimum level. It is not mandatory to obtain an undergraduate degree to be a legal secretary. This profession is extremely competitive. Having certification can give you an edge over other candidates. Many law firms focus on employing candidates for the role of legal secretary who hold certification.

Skills

There is no doubt that having appropriate qualifications are essential to enter into a legal profession. However, this is also a fact that legal employers are not on a lookout for the most brilliant candidates with the best credentials. While some employers may lay equal importance to academic qualifications and skills, others may give greater importance to the skills compared to the credentials. This only indicates that if you are thinking of a career in the legal field, you will have to demonstrate certain qualities.

The nature of a solicitor’s work will definitely differ from that of a court clerk. However, there is a set of skills that is a common requirement for all legal roles. Let’s find out about them in the following:

• A passion for this profession and a wide base of knowledge in law
• Communication skills, both written and oral
• Organisational skills
• Ability to think logically
• Ability to identify errors in the opponent’s case and utilising them in your favour
• Problem-solving skills
• Skills for forming logical, persuasive and strong arguments
• A sensitive and honest approach to work
• An eye for detail
• Lucidity
• Resilience
• Ability for discreet scrutiny
• Reliability
• Team-working skills
• People skills

This skill set is mentioned in the eligibility criteria list of legal positions. Specialist recruitment agencies like Barclay Simpson emphasises on this skill-set for candidate sourcing.

In order to be a barrister, an excellent combination of basic English, cross-examination power, technical proficiency and the capability for eloquent interpretation of complicated legal documentation is desired by most employers.

Ability to speak fluently in public, a talent for debating assertively and a little bit of showmanship qualities are also necessary so that you are able to perform in the courtroom with confidence and assurance. 

As an entry-level candidate in the legal field, it is natural that you will possess no experience in dealing with legal documentation and cross-examination prior to your first job. Employers are aware of this aspect. You need to keep in mind that they are looking for the potential in you to perform these tasks and not your proven talent to demonstrate these skills in a legal role.