Recently awarded by a legal magazine, Karen Blair (Lawnet, EJ UK) was given the floor this month to bring us some insights about our profession today. A proponent of specialisation like many of our other members, Karen also put a special emphasis on the need to seek a more direct contact with clients and partners alike.
What is the most important quality for a lawyer today?
Integrity! You must be trusted in this profession, so it is important to earn the trust of people. We live in a world of new technologies, and this creates new expectations for clients. To be more precise, clients have a much higher expectation in terms of response time. This is a much faster world and you have to go with it. But answering fast does not mean providing a solution in a rush: clients want you to get back to them as soon as you can but they do not necessarily need a definitive answer to their problem. Keep them updated fast and they will give you the time you need to do a good job.
This attitude is also part of building trust: clients want to know you are working on their problem, so your reactivity to their need for contact will help to create confidence.
How do you do it in practice?
Communication in general has become very important to us. You need to know your client. And a virtual relationship is not enough. In an international environment like the one we work in every day, it is difficult. But it is necessary to not rely entirely upon e-mail. You need to phone people, to meet them in person if you can: this is critical. You must build an actual connection.
The same goes for the network, actually. I have attended quite a lot of Lawnet and Eurojuris conferences, and it was critical to meet people in person.
But people are difficult to reach today...
I tackle the difficulty to cope with everyone's busy schedule with a simple method: I use e-mails to determine a proper moment to phone and I stick to this appointment. Knowing the person will be around the phone all morning is not enough, you have to say 'we will talk on the phone at 10 am' and really do it.
Let's say e-mails are the perfect way to communicate ninety percent of the time, but the remaining ten percent has to happen in person or on the phone, and it makes a big difference.
What would be your advice to a young lawyer?
Identify an area that really interests you and dive into it. You will spend a lot of time working, so it must be something that excites you, a niche that you enjoy. In my case, it is planning and environmental law. I got into it in the early nineties, when European law was a new, emerging sector. A lot of it was related to environmental issues and I discovered that I had a deep interest in it.
