Legal and Communication Skills Training
Legal Training
Client Care and Conducting Meetings
Overview
For any law firm their lawyers are a very important asset; but without clients there would be no business. Therefore, it is vital to ensure that your new and existing clients are valued, understood and appreciated.
The majority of complaints by clients about their lawyers are usually around failure to communicate effectively, efficiently and costs. Most of these complaints can be avoided in your first meeting with the client. The first meeting is the most important because first impressions count and this is where the client makes a judgement about you, whether they like you and whether they feel like they can trust you. So, it may be useful to have a checklist that covers all the essentials, but ultimately that does not necessarily instil confidence in the client, it is how you communicate with them and how they feel after leaving that meeting that really matters.
Client Care and Conducting Meetings will take you through all the steps to ensure that your client leaves any meeting with you feeling confident in your ability to deal with their matter.
Aims
- Create rapport with a client from the outset.
- Learn how to deal with emotional clients in a confident manner.
- Control the meeting and the information provided by the client.
- Develop your confidence and communication style with a client.
Outcomes
- Know how to instil confidence in the client the first time you meet them.
- Present confident body language and vocal alignment.
- Awareness of the clients emotional state and deal with it confidently.
- Manage your nerves and how to deal with unexpected situations.
Drafting Commercial Contracts
Overview
When commercial disputes arise, the binding commercial contract is usually referred to, to show a breach of contract has occurred by one party to the detriment of the other. What escalates and becomes a very costly issue is if there is a dispute over the interpretation of the contract terms and conditions because they may be conflicting, unclear or ambiguous.
Drafting Commercial Contracts using plain English (UK) means by using modern English and keeping contracts as clear and concise. There will be less chance of inconsistencies and each party is more likely to be clear of its obligations and duties.
Drafting Commercial Contracts using plain English (UK) will look at the varies stages of producing a commercial document from understanding the client’s needs and reflecting them in the commercial arrangement to delivery of the final draft. It will also look at layout and the internal consistency of the document to ensure it accurately reflects the clients instructions.
Aspiring and junior lawyers will benefit from Drafting Commercial Contracts using plain English (UK) because they will have the opportunity to draft and review several clauses. The course also looks at the wider issue of developing a coherent methodology when attempting to capture a client’s commercial arrangement within a document.
Aims
- Approach drafting a commercial document in a logical and coherent manner
- Consider what information must be obtained from a client before drafting
- Formulate accurate wording that reflects the client’s commercial arrangement
- Understand the law underlying the commercial arrangement
Outcomes
- Draft commercial contracts confidently devising a structure that works for you.
- Identify all the key information from your client and recognise its implications.
- Confidently use appropriate wording for clauses and layout for the clauses.
- Ensure you know which jurisdiction will preside over any dispute and understand the relevant legislation.
Master Your Negotiation Skills
Overview
People are negotiating everyday. Sometimes they are easy and at other times more challenging and complex. There are many different types of negotiations and with any type of negotiation it is important to be strategic and think through what the underlying purpose is and reason. However, even if you are in a strong position, negotiations are unpredictable and it is your performance in the negotiation that can determine the outcome and result. Therefore, you need to understand your own negotiation style and how you react when negotiations start getting challenging.
Master Your Negotiation Skills will help you identify different types of negotiations, the negotiation styles and a variety of techniques that can be used to ensure you are entering any negotiations confidently. You will also understand the importance of positions, interests and values, as well recognising why it is so important to have a clear and strong Best Alternative to A Negotiated Agreement (BATNA).
Aims
- Understand what you want to achieve from the negotiations.
- Learn how your mind works and how information is received and perceived.
- Build rapport by creating confident and positive working relationships.
- Create flexible thinking styles to create more options to achieve your end goal.
- Identify your negotiation style and understand your triggers.
Outcomes
- Recognise the different types of negotiation styles: competitive and co-operative.
- Create a deeper rapport with the negotiation parties.
- Use flexible negotiation styles and recognise triggers which could affect your results.
- Assess other peoples negotiation styles and adapt your communication style.
- Ask a range of powerful questions to elicit useful answers.
Professional Business Writing
Overview
In a world where we are communicating all the time and often in-undated with lots of emails, it is very easy for a key message to get lost in the way it is written.
Professional Business Writing concentrates on writing documents using modern English. The focus is to improve your accuracy, structure and style by writing in a clear and concise way so that whatever you are writing is understood quickly. It will also offer a refresher on grammar and often misused words which can look unprofessional and reduce your credibility as well as the tone of your message by using appropriate punctuation.
Professional Business Writing will also look at how you communicate using everyday written forms of communication: emails, memos, letters, reports, attendance and file notes.
Aims
- Help you write clearly with structure and purpose to avoid misunderstanding or misinterpretation.
- Analyse your planning structure: aim, identifying audience and format.
- Identify common pitfalls in grammar, punctuation, misused words and sentence structure.
- Understand what you say verbally and what you write can be interpreted very differently.
Outcomes
- Develop and improve your writing technique.
- Recognise the purpose and objective of your written communication in the planning stage.
- Adapt your own writing style and understand its effectiveness.
- Confidently using the correct English grammar and punctuation.
Taking Witness Statements
Overview
Lawyers are taught how to draft a witness statement but often it is the skill of taking the statement from the witness that is overlooked. Focusing on the witness will mean that it makes your job easier when it comes to drafting it and ensuring that it is correct and authentic. A witness statement is a crucial legal document and so it is important that it is done accurately and reflects your client’s position.
Aspiring and junior lawyers, will find Taking Witness Statements will help them how to build client relationships and identify client language patterns to create an authentic and watertight witness statement. You will also learn how to confidently deal with emotional clients, complex and voluminous amounts of information and how to document it in an effective manner.
Aims
- Create a watertight authentic and client credible witness statement.
- Understand how to draft an accurate, clear and methodical witness statement.
- Build rapport by creating confident client relationships.
- Identify what information is relevant and irrelevant for evidential purposes.
Outcomes
- Explain the purpose and importance of drafting a witness statement.
- Ability to create and build a deeper rapport with clients’.
- Confidence on how to take an accurate and methodical witness statement.
- Ask a range of powerful questions to elicit useful answers.
- Recognise and identify client language patterns when they are speaking to you.
The Art of Advocacy
Overview
There is more to advocacy than technicality. Knowing the law and knowing your case is a pre-requisite, but it is not enough to just focus on this area. You can have a strong legal argument, but if it is not conveyed in a convincing and persuasive manner, the point or argument may be lost on the judge or jury. The Art of Advocacy will focus on making sure your content is clear and concise and delivered in a confident and persuasive manner. You will be armed with tools and techniques which will help you deal with unexpected pressures you may face and how you come across in a courtroom.Aims
- Understand how you, the opponent, the judge and jury think.
- Practise the use of your vocals and impact of your body language.
- Develop your confidence and communication style in a courtroom.
- Create rapport with people involved in the court proceedings.
Outcomes
- Know how to use your vocals to convey arguments convincingly and powerfully.
- Present confident body language and vocal alignment.
- Awareness of the courtroom formalities and etiquette.
- Control over nerves and how to deal with unexpected situations.
Understanding the English Legal System
Overview
The English Legal System is an informative course which helps you understand what it does, how it was developed and how it works. The English Legal System is a common law system and this course will look at different areas of our law, our courts system, our legislature and people who work in our legal system. Aspiring lawyers and qualified lawyers in different jurisdictions outside if England and Wales may benefit from this fun and informative course which will highlight how our legal system and etiquette is different to other jurisdictions.Aims
- Understand how the English Legal System works.
- Discover how the common law system operates and how it is different to other jurisdictions.
- Learn about the different court structures for civil and criminal cases.
Outcomes
- Know which types of areas of law are heard in the different courts structure.
- Confidently present in a courtroom using the correct formalities and etiquette.
- Awareness of the different legal terminology used.
Skills Training
Achieving Work Life Balance
Overview
Working in a highly pressurised, demanding and competitive job can often mean that work becomes the main focus of many people’s life. As a direct result, their personal life may suffer too. The same happens vice versa. If you have personal problems or worries they can directly affect your work life.
Achieving Work Life Balance will challenge what the cynics, non-believers and others say about trying to achieve a work life balance. Achieving Work Life Balance is all about taking the opportunity to reflect on your personal and professional goals and create strategic solutions to help you focus on the most important part of it – you!
Aims
- Help you understand the different perceptions around work life balance.
- Examine about your current work life balance.
- Reflect on any obstacles that affect you achieving a balance.
- Concentrate on things that are important to you.
Outcomes
- Recognise how your beliefs impact you achieving a work life balance.
- Implement a way of bringing your passions, values and goals into your daily life.
- Create an action plan that you can realistically follow.
Assertive Communication: Achieve Results
Overview
At times you need to confidently and assertively be able to deal with challenging people and situations in a workplace. At other times, you also need to be aware of your own behaviour when given any negative feedback or receiving it.
Assertive Communication: Achieve Results helps you identify the different types of behaviours: passive aggressive, aggressive and assertive and understand how to recognise them and deal with them.
You will identify exactly what you need to do to become more assertive and communicate with confidence to build strong and amicable relationships.
Aims
- Understand the difference between passive, aggressive and assertive behaviour.
- Practise the use of your vocals and impact of your body language.
- Explore ways to offer solutions when giving negative feedback.
- Discover ways to deal with negative criticism effectively.
Outcomes
- Help you understand other peoples’ motivations for their behaviour or actions.
- Confidently use your vocals to convey information convincingly and in the correct tone.
- Present confident body language and vocal alignment when speaking to anyone.
- Control your nerves and how your react to unexpected situations.
Business Development and Relationship Building
Overview
Working in a competitive world means that for businesses to survive you have to be able to build successful and sustainable business relationships. This means listening to what clients want and offering solutions.
Business Development and Building Relationships will help you learn about how you communicate with people using your body language, vocals and words and the way it comes across to other people. When done confidently and authentically it can build rapport instantly. If people like you, they are more likely to trust you and therefore be more willing to do business with you.
Business Development and Building Relationships will arm you with the tools and techniques to build successful and lasting relationships by looking after existing clients and strategically attracting new ones.
Aims
- Communicate better with people to understand their wants and needs.
- Learn about the communication model and its effect on people.
- Develop your confidence and communication style when building relationships.
- Create rapport with people you are communicating with, without overthinking the situation.
Outcomes
- Listen to what your existing and potential clients want and exceed their expectations.
- Confidently and effectively work together by making suggestions and offering solutions.
- Adapt your communication style to build better working relationships and enjoy the process.
Business English
Overview
English is one of the hardest languages to learn. So many rules and exceptions! English is often the preferred language of choice for many international businesses and therefore it is important to be able to communicate confidently when speaking and writing in English.
Business English is a practical course that will help you improve your English language so when you communicate in English, you do it with style and confidence. The emphasis is on speaking with fluency and using English for specific purposes, appropriate to your business situation.
Business English can also help you improve your written communication to ensure that your message is accurate and that the grammar, punctuation and spelling are correctly used.
Aims
- Develop your skills and build on them using vocabulary for specific purposes.
- Learn how to engage with other people by communicating in English in a natural way.
- Focus on using the target language for specific purposes in practical situations.
Outcomes
- Understand the differences in the way you communicate with others.
- Confidence when speaking in English for business or social purposes.
- Practise speaking in English to take you to the next level.
- Correctly use the appropriate grammar, punctuation and spelling.
Creating Powerful Presentations
Overview
Most people often feel daunted by the prospect of doing a presentation. Whether you have to do a formal or informal presentation, the key is to make it professional, engaging and persuasive, whilst also making it look natural and effortless.
Creating Powerful Presentations will help you build your confidence when presenting and teach you the principles needed to create a great presentation. By starting with the structure and working through it to honing your delivery, you will leave the course much more confident about what tools and techniques work best for you.
If you are new to presenting or would like to develop your confidence, this course will make sure that you learn new skills you can easily use, as well as build on your existing techniques. It is a highly interactive and fun course which will help you get comfortable and confident doing presentations.
For information about our more advanced course for seasoned presenters, please contact us.
Aims
- Learn how to use our formula to make powerful presentations.
- Develop your confidence and communication style.
- Recognise how you personally affect the presentation.
- Identify the target audience and do your research.
- Learn techniques for how to deal with difficult questions or a challenging audience.
Outcomes
- Structure content and information in a concise manner using the power of three.
- Confidence presenting in your authentic style and using your vocals.
- Awareness of how your vocal delivery and body language affect the presentation.
- Control your nerves, fear and anxiety to ensure they do affect your performance.
- Understand how to deal with the audience in a confident and professional manner.
Diverse Teams: Multi-generational Relationships
Overview
Differences in diverse teams can create successful working relationships and results when diverse team members support each others’ strengths and weaknesses. However, it is often these differences that can fundamentally challenge the effective working relationships of a diverse team.
Diverse Teams: Multi-generational Relationships will help you understand and challenge your own beliefs and assumptions. It will help you appreciate the differences and move away from negative judgements, assumptions and conflict situations to creating understanding and co-operative working relationships.
Aims
- Help you communicate better with people from different generations.
- Learn about the personality traits of people born in different generations.
- Develop your confidence and communication style in conflicting situations.
- Create rapport with people you are communicating with in a professional manner.
Outcomes
- Apply your learning to value people from different generations.
- Work confidently and effectively by flexing your communication style.
- Recognise different communication and behaviour styles to enjoy better working relationships.
Effective Time Management
Objective
Regardless of who we are, where we work and what we do; we all have 24 hours in a day. How we use our time directly impacts our decisions and results. These can positively or negatively affect our professional and personal life.
Effective Time Management will look at poor time management symptoms and help you devise effective strategies to make sure you take control of your time, so you feel satisfied that you accomplish what you need to do in an effective and efficient manner.
Effective Time Management will ensure you leave with tools and techniques so you use your time more effectively, which will have a more positive impact on your professional and personal life.
Aims
- Develop your time management skills to maximise your use of time.
- Identify your bad habits and their consequences. Swap them for good habits.
- Learn techniques on how to take control of your time.
- Recognise your time robbers and how to deal with them.
Outcomes
- Understand how your time management style can affect your results.
- Assertively deal with time robbers and maintain good relationships.
- Identify and use strategies that help you prioritise and identify important tasks.
- Confidently implement good time management techniques.
Let’s Talk – How to Communicate Effectively
Objective
In any business it is the people that makes it successful. In a fast and competitive world it is even more important that if you work in environments that provide professional services, you need to be able to communicate and do it clearly and concisely.
Let’s talk – How to Communicate Effectively focuses on the ability to actively listen first and then communicate confidently when conducting business or creating and developing client relationships. You will learn strategies on how to ensure that your message and its intention is clearly understood and recognise your own and other peoples different communication style preferences.
Aims
- Recognise how you communicate and how this affects your results.
- Understand beliefs and values and how this affects decisions and results.
- Identify different language patterns people use to communicate.
- Work successfully with people using different styles of communication.
Outcomes
- Develop a range of different types of communication skills strategies: verbal & non-verbal.
- Create rapport with clients and colleagues by building empathetic relationships.
- Confidently deal with different peoples’ personalities and styles when communicating information.
- Ask a range of good quality questions to elicit useful answers.
- Identify which language patterns people use and adapt your style authentically.
Managing Difficult People
Objective
When you have to deal with difficult people in an assertive and constructive manner it can be challenging to do this without letting your own emotions and judgements get in the way.
Managing Difficult People will prepare you to deal with challenging circumstances involving difficult people by using real life situations. You will leave the course with tools and techniques on how to effectively manage difficult people in a professional and courteous manner.
Aims
- Help you understand why people may behave the way they do.
- Learn how to control your reactions and thoughts to challenging behaviour.
- Develop your confidence and communication style in conflicting situations.
- Create rapport with the people you are communicating with, in a professional manner.
Outcomes
- Know how to react professionally in a range of difficult situations.
- Present your body language and vocals in a confident manner when dealing with difficult people.
- Feel confident about dealing with difficult people by knowing what communication style will work best for the situation.
Master Your Negotiating Skills
Objective
People are negotiating everyday. Sometimes they are easy and at other times more challenging and complex. There are many different types of negotiations and with any type of negotiation it is important to be strategic and think through what the underlying purpose is and reason. However, even if you are in a strong position, negotiations are unpredictable and it is your performance in the negotiation that can determine the outcome and result. Therefore, you need to understand your own negotiation style and how you react when negotiations start getting challenging.
Master Your Negotiation Skills will help you identify different types of negotiations, the negotiation styles and a variety of techniques that can be used to ensure you are entering any negotiations confidently. You will also understand the importance of positions, interests and values, as well recognising why it is so important to have a clear and strong Best Alternative to A Negotiated Agreement (BATNA).
Aims
- Understand what you want to achieve from the negotiations.
- Learn how your mind works and how information is received and perceived.
- Build rapport by creating confident and positive working relationships.
- Create flexible thinking styles to create more options to achieve your end goal.
- Identify your negotiation style and understand your triggers.
Outcomes
- Recognise the different types of negotiation styles: competitive and co-operative.
- Create a deeper rapport with the negotiation parties.
- Use flexible negotiation styles and recognise triggers which could affect your results.
- Assess other peoples negotiation styles and adapt your communication style.
- Ask a range of powerful questions to elicit useful answers.
Networking With Confidence
Objective
Networking is a prerequisite skill most people need to succeed in business. By building your network, you open up a host of new opportunities that could generate new business or build meaningful professional relationships. Networking done with the correct mindset is a very powerful tool.
Networking With Confidence takes you on a journey from pre-networking to post-networking and all the steps in between to ensure that you have the practical tips and tools to make you a successful networker. It will facilitate honest and frank discussions about concerns people genuinely feel about networking and will offer solutions of how to overcome them, so you approach any networking event with confidence.
Aims
- Develop your confidence, rapport and communication style when networking.
- Help you recognise opportunities that arise out of unexpected situations.
- Build strong relationships to create your own network.
- Improve your ability to confidently deal with tricky situations.
Outcomes
- Skills that you can instantly use to build on your existing network and reputation.
- Knowledge of working out different peoples’ personality preferences.
- Adapt your language patterns to comfortably connect with different types of people.
- Confidently interact with a range of different types of people in networking situations.
- Ability to ask good quality questions and keep the flow of the conversation going.
Problem Solving and Unlocking Solutions
Objective
If you work in an environment where you have to identify problems, generate solutions and implement them then Problem Solving and Unlocking Solutions will provide you with a range of tools and techniques to solve problems in the workplace.
Problem Solving and Unlocking Solutions will help you identify the root problem, generate and evaluate the best solutions and their consequences and make decisions about which ones to implement in the most effective and efficient way.
Based on real life workplace problems you experience, you will be able to authentically practise using a range of problem solving tools and apply them to see which ones work best.
Aims
- Learn about the different problem solving tools.
- Develop your confidence in anticipating and identifying problems.
- Create rapport with people you are communicating with in a professional manner.
Outcomes
- Use the best problem solving tools and techniques relevant to the problem.
- Confidently analyse changes, deviations and problems.
- Identify root causes of problems and implement solutions.
- Review your decisions, take action, implement solutions and take responsibility for them.
Professional Business Writing
Overview
In a world where we are communicating all the time and often in-undated with lots of emails, it is very easy for a key message to get lost in the way it is written.
Professional Business Writing concentrates on writing documents using modern English. The focus is to improve your accuracy, structure and style by writing in a clear and concise way so that whatever you are writing is understood quickly. It will also offer a refresher on grammar and often misused words which can look unprofessional and reduce your credibility as well as the tone of your message by using appropriate punctuation.
Professional Business Writing will also look at how you communicate using everyday written forms of communication: emails, memos, letters, reports, attendance and file notes.
Aims
- Help you write clearly with structure and purpose to avoid misunderstanding or misinterpretation.
- Analyse your planning structure: aim, identifying audience and format.
- Identify common pitfalls in grammar, punctuation, misused words and sentence structure.
- Understand what you say verbally and what you write can be interpreted very differently.
Outcomes
- Develop and improve your writing technique.
- Recognise the purpose and objective of your written communication in the planning stage.
- Adapt your own writing style and understand its effectiveness.
- Confidently use the correct English grammar and punctuation in your writing.
Support Staff Success: Effective Relationships
Overview
Anyone who works in a support role will understand the pressures of working in a hectic and often demanding environment. They are often expected to confidently deal with a range of different people, manage their own time and their boss too, all in an efficient and effective manner.
Support Staff Success: Effective Relationships is all about helping you improve your verbal and written communication skills and manage your day to day workload efficiently. It will also help you professionally interact with other people and deal with any demanding people and bosses, in an assertive and confident manner.
Support Staff Success: Effective Relationships will facilitate honest and frank discussions about real life experiences and offer effective solutions. You will leave this course armed with the tools and techniques to enable you to be a confident reliable and respected team player.
Aims
- Help you communicate better with people whether on the phone, in person or in writing.
- Learn the personality traits of people you work for and how to communicate with them.
- Develop your confidence and assertiveness skills in challenging situations.
Outcomes
- Understand the changing dynamics of different working environments.
- Work confidently and effectively together with your team.
- Adapt your communication and behaviour style to enjoy better working relationships.
The Art of Public Speaking
Overview
Anyone who has to give a public presentation, such as a speech or been a speaker at an event, will know that it takes confidence and a range of other skills to reach a wide ranging audience and keep them engaged.
The Art of Public Speaking will help you develop and deliver a presentation around a subject area of your choice. You will leave this course armed with tools and techniques that you can use and practise to help you make your speech engaging and your performance memorable.
Aims
- Help you prepare your presentation from content to delivery.
- Learn about the communication model and how it affects presentations.
- Develop your confidence and communication style in line with your material or content.
- Create rapport with people you are communicating to in a professional and engaging manner.
- Know what visual aids will work best for your presentation.
Outcomes
- Structure your content to time and identify the three key issues most important for your audience.
- Understand your strengths and weaknesses as a speaker and improve them.
- Adapt and flex your communication style based on your audience.
- Increase your confidence in using appropriate visual aids.
Working With Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
Overview
The importance of emotional intelligence in a working environment is often underrated and a common misconception is that it is all about overly sensitive and highly emotional people. This inaccuracy can be costly for you by affecting the way you work, the way you communicate effectively with other people and not being aware of how you process your emotions (especially during challenging and difficult times).
Working With Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is about understanding how your emotions affect your behaviour and how that impacts your work. By becoming more aware of your own emotions and understanding how you respond to various situations, means you can control their outcome.
Optional:
In addition to the Working With Emotional Intelligence (EQ) course, you can choose to complete a SEI EQ Developmental Assessment. This confidential report will provide you with an in-depth analysis of personalised strategies to build on your EQ for personal and professional growth which can be discussed in a confidential 1:1 coaching session.
Aims
- Help you communicate better with people from different generations.
- Learn about the personality traits of people born in different generations.
- Develop your confidence and communication style in conflicting situations.
- Create rapport with people in a professional manner using empathy or sympathy.
Outcomes
- Apply your learnings to value people from different generations.
- Work confidently and effectively with people and understand their underlying puposes.
- Adapt your communication and behaviour style to enjoy better working relationships.