It’s a win-win: how soft skills-training helps both lawyers and clients

The phrase “in-house training” has such a corporate ring to it as to make the exercise sound more than a little dull! At Benussi & Co, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

We hold training sessions for our staff every Wednesday, over a sandwich lunch, and they are always lively and extremely productive.

What’s more, our clients benefit: not only does regular training enable us to improve on how we deal with people who may be emotionally vulnerable; it also helps us focus on how we can improve our service and its delivery to our clients.

For example, as a result of one training session, we agreed that where possible we would send clients handwritten notes rather than letters typed on our headed paper. The reason is that if the going is particularly tough, people see a “solicitor’s letter” and immediately think “oh no, more problems” and can’t bring themselves to read it. A handwritten note is less intimidating; it also underlines our personal touch and emphasises to clients that we are on their side and thinking of them.

At the end of last month, the D5 group of family law firms, of which we are a founder member, held its annual conference. The aim was to share knowledge, expertise and best practice.

The training sessions covered both recent developments and trends in family law as well as “soft skills” – both hugely important to dedicated matrimonial lawyers.

There are many soft skills we explore; one of them is learning to interpret body language more effectively. This can be vital. It is not unusual for clients to be reluctant to tell us things they may feel ashamed or embarrassed about. Yet we need to know certain information in order to prepare and present their case to best effect.

The last thing we want (or they need) is to be “ambushed” by the other side’s legal team with information of which we may be unaware.

So being able to read body language is crucial: if we do our job better, our clients get a better deal at the end of the day.

• Next week: how “round table” discussions can resolve divorce cases quicker and more amicably