Continuing to consider the rules of legal consultation, it is necessary to remember the importance that the client pays to the way the lawyer looks and how he behaves. This can be taught to a lawyer at any stage of his career – as during the study in the university, and when for an unknown reason for you do not apply to you clients. You will need this skill not only in your profession, but also in your personal life.
So, to achieve the goals of legal counseling are necessary:
- Listening to the client, without interrupting, with clarification of not quite clear, with the formation of an idea of the essence of the problem and the identification of what depends on its resolution. Often at the initial stage of the lawyer’s practice, one notices that the client is more informed not only about the problem itself, but also about the ways of its solution.
Therefore, attentive and full listening allows, having received the knowledge that you lack, or even having checked it in front of the client, to give a conclusion taking into account your general idea of this category of cases.
Never tell a client, without listening fully and analyzing in relation to what he or she thinks is relevant to the case, that what he or she is saying is not really true. The explanation for this is that:
first of all, you may be deluded;
secondly, it is very incorrect and you can always get around it by saying not what is not relevant to the case, but what is relevant to it.
- Naturalness during counseling – gesticulate, smile, question. In part – this is the outward manifestation of sincerity. “Be natural and you will be attractive”.
- Visual contact – make eye contact – confidence in knowledge and ability to provide legal assistance is judged by clients by their eyes. So make eye contact, fail to do so – you will not be believed and therefore not trusted.
- Be attractive!
The client’s perception of you is determined by whether or not you manage to make him like you. If yes – he will attribute a lot of merits to you. Therefore, it is very important to watch your facial expressions, gait, gestures, manners, clothes, shoes, accessories.
Remember this. Often after meeting a person, we say whether we liked him or not. In this case, it does not matter whether he is cute outwardly. It is important the general perception, which is formed from the above components.
And if we like him, we attribute to him a lot of additional positive qualities.
- Attention and focus – an extremely important element of the consultation, when you clearly understand the problem that the client would like to tell you about, through active listening ensure that you understand him from half a word. This will not go unnoticed by your confidant and he will form trust in you even before the actual counseling – you might say, before you start talking. In addition, only attentiveness will ensure that a complex problem is properly understood.