Perfecting One's Skill

Talent and intelligence are only the cogs in the broader machinery of the legal mind and to think otherwise is naive because a person who does not read and analyse the stacks of law reports, legal journals, textbooks or any such academic material to prepare for an exam will not have his or her intelligence acting his or her panacea. It is common cause that nobody is born with complete, or even remote, knowledge of the law and therefore one must acquire such knowledge through infinite reading of various legal material. Being intelligent or smart is irrelevant for purposes of studying and/or practising the law in that both studying and practising law effectively is a skill which one hones and polishes over a period of time. The law student develops better study methods, analytical qualities and styles of writing as he or she progresses through law school.

During the previous academic year he or she spent hours summarising cases and texts from textbooks, but this year he or she does the same exercise in half the time. Furthermore, his or her arguments are crisper and more thorough and astute. This is all through practise in that the student fails several times on each aspect before he or she progresses further and without such practise the student cannot improve and advance to the next level.

One must constantly hunger for more than what the average jurist does or achieves and this has to manifest in the desire to constantly better oneself. For, if it is evident that the culmination of knowledge (legal and extra-legal), skill, talent and discipline is a fine legal mind then it cannot be that one relies only or mainly on one's intellectual ability. Many, if not all, of the seasoned professionals, this includes all legal practitioners, have developed and are continuing to develop, their abilities (legal and otherwise) over a period of time. There simply is no 'instant success'!

The lawyer develops better negotiation skills, jurisprudential reasoning, ability to make sharper arguments as he or she advances further in the legal profession. During the previous financial year the lawyer lost eight cases, R2 million on a deal and he gave legal advice that was somewhat sloppy, but this year he or she wins twenty cases, makes R500 million worth in deals and most of his clients can't help themselves but to shower him with praises for, inter alia, the legal advice which he or she has given to them. It is a gradual process and one must fastidiously and concertedly devote the bulk of his or her time in developing and perfecting one's skill. It is a skill to make cogent and astute legal arguments and this has, broadly speaking, nothing to do with intelligence or talent. It is well accepted that some people's personalities or talents make them fearless, confident and bold but to be fair this has very little, or no, influence on one's skill. The loudest and most confident jurist is not necessarily the most skilled in that there are many other aspects of this skill than just being loud, namely, legal writing, analytical and logical thinking and jurisprudential reasoning.

Suffice to say that one's work ethic must be refined and matured because it shall prove to be the vital key to unlocking and harnessing one's legal skill.

Frank Talk

Disclaimer: If I have had a conversation with you about any of the issues that are debated on above, this is not by any means a response or retort to what you may or may not have said during such a conversation. It is an expression of my own views which may or may not have been inspired or encouraged by any interaction between you and I.