Thursday, July 9, 2020

Brian Tang on Being a Successful 21st Century Legal Professional (HK Lawyer)

Brian Tang
Hong Kong Lawyer
June 2020
Lawyers as a profession have long been well known as domain experts, client advocates and problem solvers. However, there is increasing recognition and analysis of the broader core skillsets and mindsets required for lawyers and future legal service professionals to succeed. 

T-shaped lawyer 
The concept of the T-shaped professional has long been promoted in different contexts, from computing at IBM, to management consulting at McKinsey, and creative design at IDEO...

Delta Competency Model for Legal Professionals 
In 2018, a small group comprising law professors from Northwestern and Michigan State and legal professionals from Mayer Brown and legaltech giant Thomson Reuters met at a conference hosted at Michigan State's LegalRnD Lab run by Dan Linna. The group recognised the value of the T-shaped lawyer and the need for lawyers to expand their competency to process, data and technology, and then in the words of Northwestern Law School's Alyson Carrel "flipped the T-shaped Lawyer on its side" and added a third component, Personal Effectiveness Skills, to better capture the human element of lawyering that enables him or her to be a counselor and trusted advisor. Key personal effectiveness skills include relationship management, entrepreneurial mindset, emotional intelligence, communication and character. They called this the Delta Competency Model...

O-shaped lawyer 
Across the Atlantic, another initiative has emerged that is driven instead by 18 leading UK general counsel – ie, the important corporate clients of law firms and major users of legal services. The O-shaped lawyer (oshapedlawyer.com), as described by Network Rail’s General Counsel (Regions) Dan Kayne, exudes optimism and is open, opportunistic, original and takes ownership.... Click here to read the full text. 

No comments:

Post a Comment