Surprising to many, lawyers actually have to be personable. Succeeding as a lawyer is just as much about being able to build a rapport with clients as it is about knowing substantive law. In fact, some would probably argue that the former skill is much more important. Yet the law school provides few opportunities for students in first year and even into upper years to develop their client counselling skills. There is no mandated requirement for students to develop these critical soft skills that will help them succeed once in the field. It’s therefore not surprising that students often fail to appreciate the importance of developing the skills required to effectively interact with clients, a task which actually describes a large portion of the work of practicing lawyers.
The BLG Client Consultation Competition is an initiative that attempts to respond to this obvious gap in legal learning. Participants engage in mock consultations with prospective clients where they are judged just as much on their ability to interact with the client as they are on substantive law (one of the judges is actually from the field of social work). In other words, a student’s ability to “read the room” and to service the needs of a specific client is paramount. This includes whether students can demonstrate empathy while remaining in control of the meeting and convince the client that they would be a good fit to serve as their legal representation.
This year’s competition saw students in preliminary rounds having to respond to a very aggressive and self-righteous client who, despite facts pointing to the contrary, believed he/she had done no wrong. In final rounds, students had to deal with a tight-lipped client who was engaged in some shady business. While both scenarios raised substantive commercial-contract issues, ultimately the pairs who did well went beyond just conveying substantive law, and were actually able to respond to the client’s personality.
The finalists from this year’s competition were: Bill Rosemberg & Michael Garbuz; Hana Dhanji & Leo Kotov; Victoria Yang & Shawn Arksey; Claudia Dzierbicki & David Salter; and David St Bernard & Aron Nimani. Claudia Dzierbicki and David Salter placed first and will be representing UofT at the Canadian Client Consultation Competition in February at Osgoode Law School so wish them luck! Winners at the national level then go on to represent Canada at the international level at the Louis M. Brown and Forrest S. Mosten International Client Consultation Competition (this year’s competition is in Puerto Rico!)
Participants at all levels in the competition left having had a positive and fun experience and many articulated that they found it a valuable contribution to their legal learning, even helping them in clinic work. Michael Garbuz had this to say about his experience: “The whole experience was really fun, very educational, and I would highly recommend it to everyone in future years!”
Having participated in the competition at the regional and national level last year, we can attest to the valuable skills gained it. We are hopeful that in coming years the law school places more value in the development of soft skills like client counselling and we encourage students to learn more about and consider participating in next year’s competition!
