What is Required of a Lawyer

Knowledge Required:

Law and Government -- Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.

English Language -- Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.

Customer and Personal Service -- Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.

Skills Required:

Reading Comprehension -- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.

Judgment and Decision Making -- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.

Writing -- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.

Critical Thinking -- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.

Active Listening -- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.

Persuasion -- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.

Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.

Negotiation -- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.

Speaking -- Talking to others to convey information effectively.

Active Learning -- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.

Abilities Required:

Oral Expression -- The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.

Problem Sensitivity -- The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.

Speech Clarity -- The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

Inductive Reasoning -- The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).

Written Comprehension -- The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.

Oral Comprehension -- The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.

Speech Recognition -- The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.

Written Expression -- The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.

Deductive Reasoning -- The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.

Information Ordering -- The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).

Source: http://www.careerplanner.com/Job-Descriptions/Lawyers.cfm