1. Professional

At all times, consultants must deal with every client in a professional manner. As business relationships progress in years and quality, consultants may easily drop their sophisticated, seasoned approach and develop camaraderie attitude. This could easily cause the consultant to lose his effectiveness.

2. Dedicated

A client needs to feel that his consultant is completely dedicated to the success of the client’s company. To exhibit his dedication, the legal consultant must work with sophistication and emotion (albeit in a professional manner). An effective legal advisor will show that the client’s success is as important to his heart as it is to his wallet.

3. Good Listener

To bring success to a client, a consultant needs to be able to identify weaknesses and correct them. A legal consultant can only accomplish this when he can listen to his client describe the successes and failures of his company. An added value of listening well is that you make the client feel that he and his thoughts are important. This will encourage the client and his staff to speak more freely.

4. Excellent Communication Skills

This attribute is addressing the consultant’s ability to express himself orally and in writing. A legal consultant may be the world’s expert in an area of law, but if he is not able to share that knowledge with another, he is not a good advisor. A good legal consultant will work on his written and oral delivery to the point where his words can penetrate the heart and mind of his client and his staff.

5. Decisive

To be trusted and respected, the good legal consultant will be decisive when challenged with questions and problems. This does not mean that the consultant should be hasty in his decisions; rather, he should listen, gather all of the relevant facts and information and decide on a plan of action.

6. Expert

One of the primary reasons why any business engages a client is because the client feels that he needs to bring a more knowledgeable party to assist in the growth of the company. A successful consultant needs to have broad wealth of legal knowledge and experience to possess the answers to questions or where to go to obtain the answers. To accomplish this, a legal consultant needs to read the appropriate journals and remain active in networks.

7. Flexible

Every legal consultant will tell you that each client has different needs and desires. A good consultant must be able to adapt his skills to fill the various needs and wants of his clients. One of the most important methods of accomplishing this is by researching every aspect of each client’s organizational structure.

8. Collaborative

While a legal consultant needs to be an expert, he must also recognize the limits of his knowledge, skills and experience and seek assistance when needed. Being a good collaborator with others who may be have greater expertise can secure your role as an effective advisor. Often, when we say, “I don’t know, but I will find the correct answer,” our clients develop greater respect for us.

9. Time Manager

Your client may feel very strongly that your time is his money. As a result, a good consultant will be extremely to maximize his time for his client. By schmoozing next to the coffee maker, you will not win favor from your client.

10. Reputation

A legal consultant’s reputation is his most important quality. If a client questions his consultant’s reputation, he will not honor the consultant’s advice or services.

To find a consultant who fully possesses all ten of these attributes may be a challenge, but it is worth a try.