Competitive Awareness for Lawyers

Being a successful lawyer takes skill, knowledge, talent and ability. Learning Legal English is a superb way to develop an edge over your peers, particularly considering that you need an IELTS score of 8.5 to practice as a solicitor in England and Wales.

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With more lawyers practising than ever before, the need for competitive advantage is clear.

Figures released by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) indicate that there are over 140,000 practising solicitors in England and Wales, an increase of 5% on last year. In spite of Brexit, the number of EU lawyers working within the jurisdiction has also increased from 2,784 at the time of the referendum to 2,923 lawyers today.

 

Many senior lawyers have questioned whether the rise is sustainable. The legal profession has grown by more than 26% since 2009. Tony Williams, a former City lawyer who now acts as a consultant told the Law Gazette: "If you look at utilisation rates and hours declining, and revenue per lawyer which seems to have flat-lined, margins have been squeezed and yet firms are still recruiting. The fact that the profession is still adding bodies when there is spare capacity is odd, and you would expect if anything for it to be going the other way."

 

The need for competitive advantage

The growing number of solicitors working in England and Wales demonstrates vividly the need for lawyers to demonstrate competitive advantage. One skill that lawyers can offer to their firms is knowledge of a second language. By working with top international lawyers on legal English, TOLES preparation, legal Spanish, legal Italian, legal French and a myriad of other languages, our teachers are perfectly placed to help you to gain a competitive advantage over your peers.

 

For more information on how to improve your communication skills as a lawyer, email us.

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