What Makes a Good Lawyer?

What Makes a Good Lawyer?

The question of what makes a good lawyer is one raised frequently and often only answered after a lifetime of work experience.  But some academics from the University of Missouri have sought out the issues in their book The Good Lawyer: Seeking Quality in the Practice of Law, published this summer.
Think you are a good lawyer? Take Doug Linder and Nancy Levit’s quiz and find out how much you really know. You can click here to take it interactively, or read the questions and answers below.

1. When it comes to assessing the emotional state of a client or absorbing what a client says in an interview, are male lawyers or female lawyers likely to perform better?

(a) Male and female lawyers are likely to perform equally well at both tasks.

(b) Male lawyers are likely to perform better at both tasks.

(c) Female lawyers are likely to perform better at both tasks.

(d) Male lawyers are likely to be better at assessing emotional states; female lawyers are likely to be better listeners.

2. When a lawyer represents a client whose welfare he or she cares about deeply, what becomes more likely?

(a) The lawyer is more likely to cheat or violate rules of ethics.

(b) The lawyer is more likely to tell the client’s story in a compelling way.

(c) Both (a) and (b) are likely.

(d) Neither (a) nor (b) is likely.

3. What emotional state is most likely to prompt courageous moral actions (doing the right, but difficult, thing)?

(a) Empathy.

(b) Emotions such as anger, disgust, guilt and shame.

(c) Both answers above are about equally correlated with a willingness to take moral action.

4. What character strength, when demonstrated at an early age, is most predictive of success decades later in school and in careers?

(a) Empathy.

(b) Courage.

(c) Honesty.

(d) Self-control.

(e) Creativity.

Read more at the ABA Journal or take the quiz via the link above

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