Executive summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi About the authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix About CILEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxix Introduction: Why soft skills are now core legal skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxi By Sara Fowler, president, CILEX Part I: Mastering Yourself Chapter 1: Emotional intelligence in legal practice – developing a superpower for lawyers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 By Kim Tasso, managing director, RedStarKim What does emotional intelligence really mean? Why is it important? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The four key components of emotional intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Self-awareness and emotional intelligence under pressure . . . . . . . . . . 7 Managing emotional triggers in adversarial environments . . . . . . . . . . 8 Empathy without losing objectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 EI as a risk management and leadership tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Emotional intelligence and wellbeing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Chapter 2: Building resilient lawyers and legal teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 By Paula Davis, JD, MAPP, founder and CEO, Stress & Resilience Institute What the legal profession can learn from the US Army . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Lawyers and soldiers – there are similarities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Building resilience in law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Strategies for building individual resilience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Strategies for building team resilience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Chapter 3: Grief and trauma in legal practice – managing exposure in a loss-saturated profession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 By Tom Spence The hidden emotional landscape of legal work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Suppression has cognitive, ethical and leadership consequences . . . . 34 Understanding grief in professional contexts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Grief as cumulative exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 The contextual nature of grief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Grief as an operational reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Stress, trauma, and the continuum of exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 How suppression became the norm in legal culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Impact of unprocessed exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Regulation vs suppression – developing a critical professional competence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 The one grain approach – practical navigation of grief and trauma . . 40 Practical skills for lawyers – managing exposure in practice . . . . . . . . . 42 Collective resilience – a strategic reframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Leadership and culture in law firms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Cultural change requires consistent practice, clear accountability and visible leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Steadiness in law – building grief-literate firms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Chapter 4: Neurodiversity in legal practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 By Danielle Gleicher-Bates and Emma Llanwarne, neurodiversikey What neurodiversity means . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 The disability cross-over . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Strengths-based thinking vs deficit-based assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Identity-first vs person-first language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Why law attracts – and challenges – neurodivergent thinkers . . . . . . . 52 Disclosure – choices, risks, and boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Reasonable adjustments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Practicing as a neurodivergent lawyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Requesting reasonable adjustments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Masking, burnout, and imposter syndrome in legal environments . . 57 Managing your own working style with insight and self-compassion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Working with neurodivergent colleagues and clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Making reasonable adjustments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Serving clients’ best interests and needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Chapter 5: Time management and prioritization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 By Nikki Alderson Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Why lawyers struggle with time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Focus, energy, and avoiding burnout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Managing competing stakeholders and deadlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Practical, sustainable solutions for busy legal professionals . . . . . . . . . 72 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Chapter 6: Decision-making under pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 By Alice Boullier de Branche and Jean-Baptiste Lebelle, A&O Shearman Common decision-making traps for lawyers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Deciding under pressure, the role of wellbeing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Balancing risk, judgment, and incomplete information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 When perfectionism becomes a disability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Collaborative decision making and collective responsibility . . . . . . . . . 86 Standing by decisions and revisiting them when needed . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Optimal busyness applies to decision making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Practical tools for deciding under pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Part II: Working Effectively with Others Chapter 7: How to have difficult conversations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 By Susan Heaton-Wright, founder, Superstar Communicator Why difficult conversations define legal careers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 What makes conversations “difficult”? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Introducing The SuperStar Communicator™ approach to difficult conversations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 The conversation grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 The PREPARE model (for before the conversation) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 The OPEN model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 The LISTEN model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 The CALM technique (emotional regulation) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Real-world scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Voice and presence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Non-verbal communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 The five-minute hack – a quick exercise before any difficult conversation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Chapter 8: Giving and receiving feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 By Wayne Hassay, managing partner, Maguire Schneider Hassay, LLP Objections to a constructive culture of feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Build the operating standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Implementation risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 The ultimate implementation risk – a failed loop poisons morale . . . 114 Regaining control when the risks appear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Managers giving – and the team receiving – all feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Conclusion – this is not a gimmick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Chapter 9: Delegation and supervision – leading modern legal teams with confidence, clarity and humanity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 By Pam Loch, Solicitor and CEO, with contributions from Lauren McLaughlin, solicitor, and Kate Rigby, HR director, Loch Delegation and supervision as core leadership capabilities . . . . . . . . . . 117 Setting expectations and boundaries with modern teams . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Managing people for quality, efficiency, and development . . . . . . . . . . 120 Supervising without micromanaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Psychological safety and supportive challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Delegation as a leadership skill, not a liability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Building resilient teams through delegation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Learning from delegation failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Clearer delegation, stronger supervision, better outcomes . . . . . . . . . . 127 Chapter 10: Negotiation as communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 By Jonathan Middleburgh, principal, Edge International Negotiation as a core communication skill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Negotiation as communication process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Two philosophies – positional vs interest-based negotiation . . . . . . . . 130 The communication toolkit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Context and medium – where and how negotiation happens . . . . . . . 135 Negotiation with your own client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Communication as a core skill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Chapter 11: Agile and lean – new ways of collaborating and organizing work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 By Maria Govis, KPMG Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Where Agile and Lean come from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Agile and Lean for legal teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Working smarter – technology tools for modern legal practice . . . . . . 148 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Part III: Influence, Visibility and Career Development Chapter 12: Networking with purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 By Rebecca Overend, business development manager and associate, Irwin Mitchell Why networking matters more than ever . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Debunking myths and reframing networking for lawyers – why networking is a skill, not a personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Building genuine professional relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Internal vs external networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Maintaining connections over time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Networking for different career stages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Practical frameworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Making networking a sustainable habit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Chapter 13: Turning relationships into results – mastering business development in modern practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 By Yuliya I. LaRoe, JD, MBA, BD and leadership coach for lawyers and CEO at LeadWise Group, Inc The RainMastersTM Framework – the foundations of sustainable rainmaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Discovering your natural rainmaking style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Upgrading your business development mindset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Developing a winning business development strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 The operating system of sustainable rainmaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Bringing it all together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Chapter 14: Developing your professional profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 By Rebecca Harding, Saltwhistle Why you cannot afford to ignore this . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 How clients actually choose you . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Defining who you are . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 The psychology that helps you win . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Your digital presence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Creating content that gets you noticed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 The new digital landscape – what you also need to be doing . . . . . . . . . 191 Making it happen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 In summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Part IV: Leading Through Change Chapter 15: Change management for lawyers – the human architecture of change in legal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 By Dr Andrea Miskolczi, MBA, managing director, InterAlia Consulting Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 The sponsor – permission as leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 Managers and partners – the daily architects of culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 The change leader – bridging the gap between left and right . . . . . . . . 202 The project manager – when structure serves people . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 The power user – the most credible proof of concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 The change champion – the bridge between vision and practice . . . . 205 The sponsor alliance – when one sponsor is not enough . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Chapter 16: The modern digital lawyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 By Daan Potjer, director, commercial and legal excellence, Loyens & Loeff N.V. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Future-proof skills and mindset for lawyers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 How AI is transforming lawyer workloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Working smarter, not harder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Fostering an innovative culture in the firm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Rethinking the lawyer’s value proposition in an AI era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 Embrace and adopt new technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 Chapter 17: Becoming a trusted advisor and beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 By Stuart Maister, chief storyteller, Strategic Narrative First, be trusted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 What is trust? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 Be a trusted… what? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 Being a Trusted Partner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 Trusted partnership can bring firm-wide benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Focus on the clients who are willing to build a partnership . . . . . . . . . . 227 Be intentional about trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Chapter 18: The profoundly human law firm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 By Jonathan Middleburgh, principal, Edge International Learning from other shifts in technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 The shifting landscape – what AI can and cannot do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 The Profoundly Human Lawyer – a model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 The skills matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Developing human skills – practical approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 A word on AI literacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 The competitive advantage that cannot be automated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 About Globe Law and Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239