Professional Business Communication
Clifford Chance LLP is a multinational law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and a member of the “Magic Circle”. It is one of the ten largest law firms in the world measured both by number of lawyers and revenue. We have worked with them for many ears on a variety of courses and projects
Background
Trainees and junior lawyers tend to be very hungry for knowledge about the law. Communication skills training is about how we transfer our knowledge and give confidence to our colleagues and our clients. Trainee lawyers tend to be very bright, very quick and articulate. Training in this area is about fine tuning skills.
Need
The need with trainee lawyers is often about developing confidence in communicating assertively with senior lawyers. Senior lawyers are often under great pressure with tight deadlines. It is for the trainee to adapt to this whilst at the same time getting sufficient detail in briefings to be bale to carry out tasks efficiently.
Activity
We developed a half day to full day workshop which covers the key areas of communication and focusses on the trainees personal communication challenges. It is a workshop with plenty of discussion and debate, resulting in each trainee developing their own ideas and actions to implement immediately. The session addresses questions including;
- How do we interrupt a busy senior lawyer?
- What do I do if my supervisor does not reply to my email?
- How do I ask a question without looking stupid?
- How do I know what I ought to know, before asking a question?
Outcomes
The main outcomes of this session are:
- The participants leave with clear and specific actions.
- Their questions are addressed.
- Each person has a set of actions and ideas to take forward.
Participant Feedback
“Very interesting especially the models.”
“I need to work on my non verbal communication, which I had not fully considered before.”
“I have experienced meetings where the content of the words has been fine, but where the client has drifted away because the delivery was not matching their style; so this stuff is really important”
Client Comment
“The session is always very popular and gets excellent feedback.”