Every profession has its own complexities, skills and competencies. As we progress in our corporate journey, or rather we can say life’s journey, we increasingly deal with professionals of different fields – Chartered Accountants, lawyers, valuers, consultants, doctors etc. The list is endless. We generalists are sort of ‘self-centred’ people. We use the expertise and competence of all these professions for a fee and stay focussed on our goals. For me, a thought always remain – what can we learn from all the professionals who we deal with and implement in our own lives. We already have impressions. An engineer is factual and logical, Chartered Accountant is good at numbers, Consultants can build great stories and charge obnoxious fee for doing so, MBAs are jack of all trades and do on and so forth.

Somehow, lawyers and doctors are remembered only when situation is not favourable, which is when we treat them like Gods, to forget them when life returns to normal. My profession demands close working with lawyers. Today I make an attempt to figure out what can we learn from lawyers, not the law, but qualities that every manager needs in his everyday life. So, here we go:

1. Building of a case

Very early in my corporate life I had an instance where we had to contest an important case in Delhi High Court. I used to hear the proceedings regularly. Opposite side was represented by Mr. Arun Jaitley. For me it was a treat to watch his arguments. He had amazing acumen to build a case, bring out the facts in a step-by-step manner and link them with the applicable laws. Even though his case was on a weaker ground, his ability to spin a story, build a case and convince the Judge was admirable. Since then, I always find it interesting to hear and read the arguments in court rooms for important cases. The way seasoned lawyers like Harish Salves and Kapil Sibals of the world build their cases can be excellent case studies for business schools and corporate world.

Coming to the corporate world, don’t we build our cases almost on an everyday basis? All our presentations, discussions with seniors and subordinates are about convincing others about our point of view, earning their confidence, building business plans keeping regulations and law of the land in mind are just about being a good lawyer. Build a story, a case, link it to company policies and applicable laws and convince the superiors and the Boards to give a favourable verdict.

• Meticulous and Ability to Write

I have found good lawyers to be very meticulous in listening, thinking and writing. While taking a brief they are all ears and ask only pointed questions. Most of us in corporate world listen to reply. While listening, their mind works on the story, strengths, weaknesses, chinks in the armour, facts of the case and crux of the matter and law points. For most of us it is a constant struggle to understand crux of the matter, whereas these professionals get to it in a very short time. Good lawyers are very good writers – they have good drafting skills. They are careful with words, punctuations, different interpretations of the same words and putting their expectations in clear words – they call it ‘prayer’. In my long career on this side of the table, I find most people are unable to think cohesively, write well and bring across their point clearly even in the quite of their cabins.

• Hard work

Many of us think that we work very hard. May be, we do. But try getting in the shoes of a good professional lawyer. From morning till early evening, he is generally moving from one court room, one court complex to other, quickly switching from one case to another. Certain cities like Delhi make things even more difficult due to multiplicity of courts in all corners of the city and the High Court and Supreme Courts being there. Evenings are generally reserved for client meeting in their chambers, preparing briefs and understanding cases. Generally, such meetings extend till late in nights. How many of us can be in the field all day and spend all evenings sitting behind our desks in office?

• Quick grasp of situation

Recently we were having a discussion on abilities of senior lawyers. For one such lawyer there was a comment that he listens to the case details for few minutes, has a quick glance at the case papers and is ready to argue in front of senior judges. Indeed, I have personally seen Mr. Jaitley doing this. I know it is true. These guys have amazing ability to grasp the important points of a case. Also, during the arguments they can read the direction of the wind, they assess the situation quickly and manage their tone, narrative, juxtaposition of facts and law points beautifully. Sometime to continue the arguments to fight another day. Obviously, in two sided cases, one lawyer must lose. But good ones win more and lose some. This is what we managers need to learn from them – grasp the situation well, play the game accordingly, and sometime buy time to play another day.

• Ability to read others

Good lawyers move from one court room to other, presenting their cases to different judges. Some judges are known and some are not. We need to remember the defence of Kul Bhushan Jadhav in the ICJ by Mr. Harish Salve, where all the judges were unknown. All these good lawyers have uncanny ability to read the mind of the judges. They can sense what’s going on in their minds, what is the next likely question and which way the case is tilting. They can also sense which judge is stickler to law point and which one looks at the facts of the case. With this, they ensure that narrative is in their hands and judges think what they want them to think. We face this situation every day in our interactions with others – superiors, subordinates, peers, leadership, customers. Better we read the mind of others, better we will be able to convince them to our point. Every presentation, after all, is about our ability to earn confidence and convince the audience of our point of view. This becomes easier, if we not only know what’s there in their minds but we are able to influence the direction of their thoughts.

• Subject knowledge

Like most professions, legal profession is also getting divided in many domains and subjects.  Generally, all good lawyers are an authority in their respective domains. Which is why we clients often reach out to them for their ‘Legal Opinion’. Similarly, there are few jobs that don’t require specialised knowledge – banking, sales, engineering, pharma, etc. every domain and function within that needs in-depth knowledge. Better the command of subject, more effective we are at our jobs.  Lawyers, once again give us a lesson.

• Confidence

Firstly, the lawyers are always confident while arguing in courts. Even if they are on weak wicket. Secondly, their confidence also emanates from their knowledge. Both are very relevant for the corporate world. I have never seen a person who’s diffident, shy and lacks confidence grow much in corporate hierarchy. In fact, often when he is right also, he is unable to sell his ideas, convince others and gets blamed for no fault of his. Nobody likes to deal with cry babies and people who have no confidence. Afterall, if they themselves have no confidence in them then why should others have it? Just like a lawyer who is not confident can never win a case.

• Not all arguments are won

Lastly, every case has a winner and a loser. Both sides are lawyers. Sometimes, a lawyer with a stronger case and better argument also loses. Lawyers as a community is mentally prepared to take these setbacks in their stride. Their mind works on ‘What Next’. Which is the next forum for appeal and what should be done now and in what time frame. Can we as managers also learn this? We may fail despite best efforts and best products. But failure is never permanent. Success will eventually come if we continue to make our efforts and persevere. And once in a while, after we have lost even in the Supreme Court, we need to accept the failure too and move on in life.

After having spent many decades in corporate world, I feel these are exactly the qualities that are important from managerial perspective. Not that these are enough. One may add many more to this list, some of the most important of which could be leadership and people-management, finance and accounts, marketing etc. but these human qualities will keep any manager in a good stead.

May be, lawyers can learn from successful lawyers by honing these skills consciously. May be, managers can learn from lawyers by becoming conscious of these qualities. And may be, lawyers as employees in the corporate world are able to address some of their dark spots like ability to manage teams, understand commercial matters and ability to see the big picture better.