5 Most In-Demand Skills for Lawyers Across All Fields

No matter the industry, top employers all ask me to find lawyers who can do these five things on top of their substantive area of expertise:

1. Communicate clearly. In-house lawyers must concisely deliver information and adjust their style depending on their audience to get the results needed.
2. Solve problems. Companies hire lawyers to fix things. The stronger a lawyer’s track record of solving problems, the more potential employers want to hire them.
3. Influence people. Lawyers must have people skills so that clients and peers work with them and not around them. When determining whether to promote someone, managers tell me they look at the person’s ability to influence.
4. Scale business/processes. Companies are focused on growth, and lawyers can help drive the engines of growth by automating processes and creating systems/playbooks.
5. Work flexibly/show good judgment. Managers tell me they want lawyers who can grow with the business as it changes, who work independently but also know when to escalate.