Most Important Skills For An Attorney At Fisher Phillips
For an attorney at Fisher Phillips, "judgment" is the most crucial skill, encompassing the ability to assess risks, identify knowledge gaps, and determine the best course of action in a case; while skills like public speaking are important, they are secondary to the "analysis of risk" and strategic preparation.
Legal Judgment, Risk Assessment, Legal Research, Communication Skills, Case Strategy
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Ryan Harrison, Sr.
Attorney
Fisher Phillips
UC Davis
CSUS - MS Criminal Justice; UC Law SF - Juris Doctor
Anthropology, Sociology
Law
Legal
Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School, Greek Life Member
Video Highlights
1. Judgment and Risk Assessment: The most important skill is sound judgment, especially in assessing potential pitfalls and risks for clients. Attorneys must be able to analyze a situation, identify potential problems, and advise clients accordingly.
2. Humility and Knowledge Gaps: A crucial aspect of judgment is recognizing the limits of one's own knowledge and knowing when to research case law and regulations to fill those gaps. This requires humility and a commitment to continuous learning.
3. Preparation Over Performance: While public speaking and argumentation are important, they are secondary to the preparation and analysis that goes into a case. Thorough preparation, based on risk assessment and value propositions, is essential for effective performance in court or client interactions.
Transcript
Q4: Most important skills for this role?
The biggest skill, I think, is judgment. To know where the pitfalls are, to be able to say, "Client, I think that you should be concerned about this risk, and here's why."
Part of the judgment also includes knowing when you don't know something, to be able to know when there's a gap in your knowledge and when you need to go perform some research. Look at the case law, look at the regulations, so you can fill that gap in your knowledge in order to address an issue. And so, in order to really exercise that judgment, you have to be humble.
Now, my job also requires arguing, public speaking, and all of those other things, but those things come after assessing a case. Really using that judgment to know how to proceed in a case and what that case strategy is going to be.
The biggest role of an attorney is to assess risk, period, and full stop. After that, all of the performative aspects—arguing in front of a jury, arguing an important motion, going out and getting clients—all of that is just tantamount and subsequent to the preparation that you do, based off of the analysis of risk, the value propositions, and all of that work that you've done in preparation for those performative acts.
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