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You’ve being doing well in your career thus far and now the doors of management are open for you. But just because you maybe the best legal executive in your firm or the leading barrister with a win-rate that would make even the great Rumpole blush, won’t necessarily qualify you as a good manager – it takes more than that simply being the master at your current role.
Taking a step into management is a whole new ball game – especially in the legal sector. Aside from doing your own job you need to know how other roles operate and begin to see things from a corporate, strategic perspective rather than simply concerning yourself with how things work within your immediate comfort zone. So what does it take to be a good manager in the legal profession?
It may sound like a cliché and we no excuses for saying that you really do need to be someone who leads by example, who knows their job inside out and does it better than anyone else performing the same role. It’s all about bringing some extra to the table, having that certain je ne sais quo.
The job will see you having to manage a number of individuals who are each performing different roles, from paralegals and legal executives to junior and associate solicitors – it is your job to understand how each role within the organisation operates and be able to bring together these varying skills sets and direct them accordingly.
You will need to become commercial orientated too, implementing marketing initiatives and taking a proactive approach to developing new business for the firm.
And with this comes an entrepreneurial approach to business. Indeed, solicitors and barristers in particular live and die by their ability to win new clients and are often practicing on a self-employed basis.
Of course being a manager means that you need to be confident in your own ability and can make decisions, regardless of how unpopular these decisions may be at the time.
But by demonstrating your leadership ability and having good technical knowledge about the area in which you are practicing, the decisions you make will be in the interest of the firm itself in terms of furthering the development of your department, for example.
Ultimately, successful managers in the legal sector are commercially aware with strong communication and decision-making skills. They are adept at keeping their cool under pressure, can manage their time effectively and skilled at prioritorising tasks.
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