Leadership in practice: Successful legal practitioners are successful leaders

February 1st, 2025
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As the legal profession is always evolving, being a successful legal practitioner is not solely tied to being an academic genius and by having legal skills. A successful legal practitioner needs to be a successful leader, who displays the characteristics of an authentic leader. The legal industry needs more mentors, more collegial collaboration, and more training for juniors. As a leader in the legal profession, your calling and your purpose should be to focus on enhancing the skills of the next generation of leaders and by uplifting others.

Mentorship

Leaders should practice knowledge sharing and embrace mentorship, regardless of whether it takes a formal form such as having candidate attorneys or an informal mentorship where guidance is provided to juniors in the profession from time to time (C Deng, DB Gulseren, and N Turner ‘How to match mentors and protégés for successful mentorship programs: A review of the evidence and recommendations for practitioners’ (2022) Leadership & Organisational Development Journal 386).

Characteristics of a successful leader

This brings about the question, what characteristics does a successful leader practice (VE Guzmán, B Muschard, M Gerolamo, H Kohl, and H Rozenfeld ‘Characteristics and Skills of Leadership in the Context of Industry 4.0’ (2020) Procedia Manufacturing 543)? Firstly, leaders should act emotionally intelligent (R Gómez-Leal, A Holzer, C Bradley, P Fernández-Berrocal, J Patti ‘The relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership in school leaders: A systematic review’ (2021) Cambridge Journal of Education 1). Secondly, leaders should embrace a growth mindset (H Zhao, J Zhang, S Heng, and C Qi ‘Team growth mindset and team scientific creativity of college students: The role of team achievement goal orientation and leader behavioural feedback’ (2021) Thinking Skills and Creativity). Thirdly, a successful leader is trustworthy and loyal (X Chen, Z Zhu, and J Liu ‘Does A Trusted Leader Always Behave Better? The Relationship Between Leader Feeling Trusted by Employees and Benevolent and Laissez-Faire Leadership Behaviours’ (2019) Journal of Business Ethics 615). Fourthly, leaders should be adaptable and embrace technology (A Grass, J Backmann, and M Hoegl ‘From Empowerment Dynamics to Team Adaptability: Exploring and Conceptualising the Continuous Agile Team Innovation Process’ (2020) Journal of Product Innovation Management 324). Fifthly, a great leader is creative and resilient (A Carmeli, A Levi, and R Peccei ‘Resilience and creative problem-solving capacities in project teams: A relational view’ (2021) International Journal of Project Management 546).

  • Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is linked to always acting courteous and professional, irrespective of the scenario at hand (C Connors Emotional Intelligence for the Modern Leader (Callisto Media 2020)). An emotionally intelligent leader focuses on relationship building with stakeholders, they resolve any disputes with counterparts professionally and they manage their stressful practices effectively (N Majeed, and S Jamshed ‘Nursing turnover intentions: The role of leader emotional intelligence and team culture’ (2020) Journal of Nursing Management 229).

  • Growth mindset

A growth mindset enables a leader to embrace change, adapt to innovative technologies and to act innovative (H Abbu, P Mugge, and G Gudergan ‘Successful Digital Leadership Requires Building Trust’ (2022) Research-Technology Management 29). The legal fraternity is known for being slow to adapt and this might hinder leaders in propelling their firms to the next level in the digital era that we find ourselves in (Leaders in Law ‘Top characteristics of lawyers: What makes a great attorney’ (www.leaders-in-law.com, accessed 27-11-2024)). A leader with a growth mindset receives criticism without getting upset and immediately makes improvements where necessary (R Wells ‘3 Ways to Develop a Growth Mindset as a Leader’ (www.forbes.com, accessed 27-11-2024)). A growth mindset assists a leader to do strategic planning and to be innovative (R Gottfredson and C Reina ‘To Be a Great Leader, You Need the Right Mindset’ (https://hbr.org, accessed 27-11-2024)). A growth mindset enables a leader to put plans in place to cater for changes to the profession as time goes on and a leader with a growth mindset, will find ways to embrace artificial intelligence and to incorporate it into their firms, to reap optimal results (J Miller ‘The future of business leadership: embracing change and innovation’ (www.forbes.com, accessed 27-11-2024)). A leader with a growth mindset is creative in its use of innovative ideas and achieves success by embracing new ideas (JM Phillips, JH Kang, D Choi, and G Solomon ‘Transformational leadership and attorneys’ performance in law firms: An examination of multilevel moderated mediation’ (2020) International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research 749).

  • Trustworthiness

A trustworthy legal practitioner leads by their example. At all times, their actions and their words are aligned. A trustworthy legal practitioner builds strong relationships with other legal practitioners, based on mutual respect and strong moral fibre (BKB Joo, SK Yoon, and D Galbraith ‘The effects of organisational trust and empowering leadership on group conflict: psychological safety as a mediator’ (2022) Organisational Management Journal 4). A great legal practitioner’s reputation exceeds himself or herself for all the right reasons (Leaders in Law (op cit)). A trustworthy leader is respected by all employees and will easily follow the example that is set by their leader (L Rood ‘Law firm leadership’ 2014 (July) DR 22).

  • Ability to adapt

The failure or success of a leader will be based on their willingness to adapt and to embrace technology. Legal practitioners sell their time and by embracing technology a lot of time could be saved. An adaptable leader will also be able to face challenges and to make changes accordingly (Phillips et al (op cit)). By being a pro-active leader, you will be quick to adapt to new risk factors and you will be open to new ways of operating your firm (Phillips et al (op cit)). If leaders fail to adapt, they will lose their competitive advantage and might in future lose clients (LexisNexis ‘15 Must-Have Traits of Successful Attorneys: The Keys to Solo Practice Prosperity’ (www.lexisnexis.com, accessed 27-11-2024)).

  • Creative and resilient

Leaders that are creative tend to find out of the box solutions to challenges that arise (Phillips et al (op cit)). Creative leaders are resilient in times of crisis and have an unwavering internal motivation to succeed (Phillips et al (op cit)).

Code of Conduct for all Legal Practitioners, Candidate Legal Practitioners and Juristic Entities

The Code of Conduct for Legal Practitioners, Candidate Legal Practitioners and Juristic Entities (Code of Conduct) explicitly displays the importance of legal practitioners conducting themselves ethically. The Code of Conduct requires legal practitioners to stay up to date with evolvements of legal practice, thus implying that legal practitioners should be innovative and adaptable. The Code of Conduct further emphasises that legal practitioners as leaders should always act professional, courteous and respectful with colleagues. A great leader will automatically possess all these qualities as mentioned in the Code of Conduct.

Concluding remarks

Legal practitioners face many challenges in their profession and your success as a leader is based on your ability to find creative solutions to complex problems and to be resilient when facing obstacles. Creative thinking shapes leaders into influencers that pave the way forward for the legal fraternity.

We are shaping the legal practitioners of the future today. Each legal mind started without experience, and it is the responsibility of all seniors to mentor these juniors. By embracing these characteristics of successful leaders, they will make an impact in society and on the legal fraternity.

Bianca Bothma is a Legal Advisor: Prosecutions at the Legal Practitioners’ Fidelity Fund in Centurion. Ms Bothma is also an MBA candidate at the Johannesburg Business School.

This article was first published in De Rebus in 2025 (Jan/Feb) DR 26.

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