Listening for Lawyers: Communication with Clients & Co-Workers
     •  Why Is Listening Critical For Lawyers?
     •  The Bottom Line: Effective Listening...
     •  What You'll Learn
     •  Who Benefits Most From Attending?
     •  Workshop CLE Credit
     •  About the Faculty
     •  Contact Us

Why Is Listening Critical For Lawyers?
     Legal practitioners rarely have an opportunity to develop what is arguably the most important form of communication—listening. Intended to address this existing developmental need, "Listening for Lawyers: Communication with Clients & Co-Workers" provides attorneys with practical listening practices, increasing their professional competence, elevating the quality of service rendered to clients, and achieving higher and more noble standards of professional conduct—ultimately improving their ability to practice law and advance the administration of justice.

     By delineating five components of the listening process; describing internal, external, and systemic communication challenges that make effective listening difficult; and identifying ways attorneys can more competently represent clients by pro-actively engaging effective listening resources in practices, this workshop directly addresses the Client-Lawyer Relationship in connection with competence, communication, and professionalism. The workshop concludes with attendees drafting and presenting client-lawyer role-play scenarios, challenging participants to engage their newly acquired listening resources in professionally bound practices. By increasing their ability to diligently engage in effective listening practices with clients and co-workers, legal professionals who attend this workshop pro-actively embrace the professional responsibilities and obligations they swore an oath to uphold.

          Workshop Tearsheet (Adobe PDF format)
          Workshop Tearsheet (Microsoft Word format)

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The Bottom Line: Effective Listening...
•   Improves understanding and aids in defining clear expectations, promoting client satisfaction that, in turn, results in repeat business and influential word-of-mouth endorsements.
•   Increases productivity, maximizing time-on-task whether working with clients or co-workers.
•   Strengthens performance, translating into professional and organizational profitability.

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What You'll Learn
•   To appreciate the difficulty of accurately, completely, and non-judgmentally summarizing another's words.
•   To employ summarizing and paraphrasing as effective listening practices.
•   To distinguish the act of hearing from the process of listening.
•   To classify five components of the listening process.
•   To recognize internal, external, and systemic communication pitfalls that make effective listening difficult.
•   To identify pro-active listening resources and practices that can facilitate effective listening with clients and co-workers.
•   To pro-actively engage effective listening resources in practices with clients and co-workers.

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Who Benefits Most From Attending?
•   Partners & Associates
•   Law Firm Non-Attorney Staff
•   In-House Corporate Counsel
•   Government Counsel
•   Non-Profit Counsel

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Workshop CLE Credit
     This program is designed to meet general requirement criteria for 1.00 - 3.00 hours of CLE credit (subject to state requirements).

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About the Faculty
     Currently serving as an Executive Director of Ketchcom Development, Inc., Eric Paul Engel has provided organizational learning and communication development services for over a decade to private, government, and non-profit organizations, including the Pentagon's Information Technology Agency, Purdue University, and the University of Missouri. A prolific writer and orator, he has facilitated over 750 workshops, seminars, and classes addressing over 1500 participants total. Mr. Engel is a member of the National Communication Association (NCA) and the Association for Continuing Legal Education (ACLEA).

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Contact Us
     To learn more about how Ketchcom Development, Inc. can help your law firm capitalize on improved professional and organizational communication competence, contact us.

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