On August 31, 2015 I had the honor of giving a lecture to the students of the FES-Aragón Law degree. I wanted to offer you a brief list of some issues that are entirely relevant for your professional future (and for that of any law student) but, quite inexplicably, it is quite likely that nobody will explain them to you throughout your career . I hope to present them in the shortest and most interesting way possible. They are the following:
1. Learn an unusual language
I assume that English is indispensable for personal and professional life in the 21st century. No need to insist on it. Who does not understand and is not clear is simply wasting his present and putting obstacles to his future.
But what I consider to be a powerful asset in your training as future lawyers is to master a foreign language other than English. That will open many doors in the professional field. Consider that Mexico has one of the most open economies in the world. There are many companies that come to Mexico to do business and that require legal assistance in many aspects. On the other hand, we have strong foreign investments in topics such as tourism, energy (oil, gas, electricity), the automotive sector and transportation. We will have a lot of advantage over our competition if we can communicate with our clients in their own language.
2. Specialize
The era of "generalist" legal practice came to an end. On the one hand, it is very difficult to master all legal issues with some depth and solvency; the information in each branch of the Law is so wide that if we do not specialize we will stay on the surface of everything, but we will not dominate anything. On the other hand, clients seek lawyers to guarantee that they dominate the issues on which they are going to provide advice or those that they will defend in court.
We do the same when we hire any type of service. Think of a somewhat obvious and even banal example: if we want to eat a good pizza, will we go to a restaurant where they serve pizzas, meats, salads, Japanese food, Chinese food, tacos and hamburgers or we will go to a restaurant that specializes Just serve pizzas and dedicate all the time and talent of your chefs to make them the best possible? The answer is obvious in the case of pizza; It must be equally obvious in the case of the provision of legal services.
Specialization is one of the keys to success and should even lead us to discover small niches of opportunity in which we are the best and perhaps even the only ones that offer these legal services.
3. Learn to charge for your work
It has happened to all of us at some point: as soon as our family members or our friends find out that we are studying Law, they consult us with any type of question that comes to mind, however extravagant or strange. Of course, we have to give them free legal advice, as they think it costs us nothing to put our knowledge at your service.
But the truth is that it is difficult to learn law. And it costs a lot. Not only because we have to invest time in our best years in training (and we will have to continue studying throughout our lives), but also because we must buy materials for the learning of law and pay tuition in case we attend schools private.
Law is a professional activity like any other. Earning money with the professional practice of law is legitimate. We must not give away our work or offer our knowledge so hard learned for free.
It may be that some lawyers are dedicated to providing free services for their community or that they found a non-governmental organization to represent poor people. They are exemplary people who are guided by goodness and detachment. But all other legal professionals have the right to charge for their knowledge, advice or sponsorship of their affairs, without feeling ashamed or without asking for it with sorrow.
4. Take care of your image
When you are a student and have to wake up very early to get to the first class of the day, sometimes spending long periods in the public transport that is always full, it is normal to want to dress with some comfort. I have had many students who arrive at the Faculty of Law wearing sportswear, flip flops or shorts. That doesn't bother me at all. But that is not the type of image that is required in the professional field.
Recently some colleagues professors discussed on Facebook whether to use a tie added or not something to the professional quality of lawyers. This is a matter that would not even have to be discussed: if you want to take matters that are really worthwhile or interact with clients that allow you to pay the rent of your office, of course you must wear a tie (in the case of gentlemen ) or tailor suit (in the case of ladies). You do not need it if your life consists of teaching philosophy of law, but when you aspire to take charge of matters that reach the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation it is better that in addition to knowing a lot of Law you wear an outfit that makes you look like a lawyer .
Remember that you can never be elegant or too polite. The good education and the good image never exceed. On the contrary, they can open many doors and pay for professional success. Take care of your image, because from it - like it or not - people form a first impression (which is usually the most lasting) of us.
5. Develop a capacity that allows you to differentiate yourself from others (for good)
As Law students can imagine, the career they chose is one of the most demanded in the country. For many years a considerable number of students choose to train as a lawyer, thinking that this could ensure a good professional future.
The truth is that obtaining a law degree does not ensure that you get a job or that work (when you get it) is well paid.
That is why you must develop some capacity or competence that allows you to stand out from others. Be the domain of a language, the ease of speech, a network of contacts, the domain of inter-American jurisprudence, knowledge of comparative law, a great capacity for writing, whatever. Develop a skill that allows you to shine among the large number of people with whom you will compete in the professional field.
6. Learn to negotiate
Throughout my years as a law student, I heard many of my professors repeat over and over again that what lawyers (real people said) did was litigate: sponsor matters before the courts, promote how much recourse they had to their reach, fight in the defense of the interests of their clients, win lawsuits in court, etc.
This is what we could call "the litigious paradigm" that conceives as the only possible solution for any social problem to submit it to the knowledge of a judge, in order to carry out a process that will end with the issuance of a sentence and decide which of the parties is right.
Most of the lawyers that I know work assuming that paradigm. The problem that exists is that the enormous costs of time and money involved in taking each problem — large or small — before a court are not considered.
Lawyers are not always aware that in many cases the best thing for their clients is to reach a quick and effective solution to the problem they have, instead of being involved in long and unproductive lawsuits.
We need to develop a culture of negotiation between lawyers, which prevents many issues from having the only judicial solution as a solution. In fact, the Constitution mandates in article 17 that there be laws that contemplate alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, so that many issues can be resolved through mediation, conciliation, arbitration and other ways that may be cheaper and effective than a judicial process.
The underlying problem that lawyers will face in this new type of professional approaches is their lack of knowledge of negotiation techniques. In most of the country's schools and faculties, not only are students not taught to negotiate, but the very idea of "negotiation" is seen as pernicious, since it is usually associated with acts of corruption.
What we need, therefore, is that lawyers learn that it is much more in the interests of their clients (and even their own) to reach negotiated solutions and to acquire the capabilities to properly develop a negotiation.
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