Skill of good litigation lawyer

SKILLS OF A GOOD LITIGATION LAWYER

Pursuant to Article 2 of Law on Lawyers 2006, amended and supplemented in 2012 (“Law on Lawyers”), lawyers are persons who fully meet the criteria and conditions for professional practice, provide legal services at the request of individuals, agencies or organizations (hereinafter collectively referred to as clients). Article 4 of Law on Lawyers stipulates that the legal services of lawyers provided to clients include: (i) to participate in legal proceedings; (ii) to provide legal consultancy; (iii) to represent clients beyond legal proceedings, and (iv) to provide other legal services. It can be seen that Vietnamese laws do not specifically divide the threshold of solicitors or litigation lawyers (barristers). However, in practice, lawyers often choose to specialize in consulting or litigation in order to enhance the quality of services provided to clients. When mentioning litigation lawyers, it can be understood that lawyers often participate in the works of representing or protecting the rights and interests of involved parties at the court/arbitration/judgment enforcement agency to settle lawsuits. In addition, depending on the clients’ request, the litigation lawyers can also represent the clients to participate in negotiations beyond legal proceedings.

1. To master the legal expertise

Firstly, the litigation lawyers must have in-depth legal expertise and know how to apply this legal knowledge into lawsuit settlement process. Legal expertise is the keyessential factor for lawyers in general and litigation lawyers in particular. Applying the solid legal expertise in each practical case is even more important, so this skill is considered a "hard" skill for lawyers in addition to soft skills. A good litigation lawyer who must work hard to research, analyses problems from a large amount of information to identify all the risks and give out legal solutions for each client’s risk according to each case.

Litigation lawyers’ legal expertise is performed not only through the research ability but also through the settlement of cases and arguments in the hearing court. Arguing in the court is a discussion process in which the persons participating in proceedings in turn give arguments and evidences to support or oppose the issues being discussed in order to protect lawful rights and interests of parties. When participating in the argument at Court, besides the contents need to be prepared by the lawyers to present at the Court, they must predict all possible situations happening when receiving the objections from the other party. During the litigation process, the litigation lawyers need to be quick to seize opportunities when the other party has contradictions in the arguments or circumstances that are favorable to the clients in the cases.

2. Flexible and civilized soft skills

In addition to strong knowledge, the litigation lawyers need to acquire themselves “soft” skills to maximize the effectiveness of litigation. Soft skills can be understood as skills related to the use of flexible and appropriate language, the ability to socialize, attitudes and behaviors in communicating with clients, other parties and the State bodies.

First, the litigation lawyers need to have good communication skills expressed in verbal and written form. When presenting their views in the litigation process, the litigation lawyers need to express their opinions easily understandable, sufficiently but concisely so that the parties, especially the proceeding authorities can understand clearly. Note that, the litigation lawyers should use the appropriate language, speak clearly and maintain a calm, confident and polite demeanor throughout the proceedings. In combination with speaking skill, the litigation lawyers need to have the professional and convinced writing ability. In order to express their opinions and views in a concise and sufficient way, the litigation lawyers need to prepare the written arguments in advance. The contents expressed in the document must be written clearly, concisely and succinctly but fully express the litigation lawyers’ views. Note that the arguments that the litigation lawyerss wish to mentionmust be closely connected with the provisions of the current laws so that their argument is solid and valid.

Second, the litigation lawyers shall proficiently use tools to support the dispute resolution, especially technological devices. Using these modern technological devices to support the litigation lawyers is essential. Normally, the work of lawyers in general and litigation lawyers in particular is mostly associated with office work such as drafting consulting letters, pleading letter to protect clients at the hearing trial, researching documentation, writing emails, … Hence, the litigation lawyers need to master the skills of using supportive tools to facilitate the process of assisting clients to resolve disputes.

Third, the litigation lawyers need to have negotiation, settlement and mediation skills. This skill has a combination of communication skills, behavior and understanding of laws and other related fields. At present, the businesses’ trend is wishing to resolve disputes through dispute resolution methods beyond the Court in order to resolve disputes as well as maintain business relationships with partners and save money for business. Therefore, the litigation lawyers should pay attention to cultivate skills and expertise to:

(i) Build trust among the parties;

(ii) Analyze different angles of the issue that the parties are disputing so that they can have a broader view;

(iii) Litigation lawyers should pay attention to the interests of the parties by putting themselves in the client's position to offer appropriate mediation solutions;

(iv) Litigation lawyers need to prepare many options to meet and harmonize the interests of the parties;

(v) Use standard words and behavior in the process of working with parties and state agencies.

As persons who understand the laws, litigation lawyers in the negotiation process should keep a professional working style and behave skillfully so that the negotiation process goes smoothly. If the mediation is successful before the proceedings begin, the parties do not have to spend a lot of time and effort to participate in the court proceedings.

In order to become a good litigation lawyer, in addition to a solid legal foundation, the above basic skills play an extremely important role in assisting lawyers to practice litigation. A lawyer who has all the elements of good expertise and proficient skills will help the proceedings go smoothly as well as the legal rights and interests of the client will be comprehensively protected.

ADK & Co Vietnam Lawyers.