Skills
Learning from Experience
The ability to communicate effectively is one of the most important skills a lawyer can cultivate. Intelligence, that’s a given, but if you can’t communicate the knowledge to your audience you are silenced.
I am talking about the ability to communicate with people from all backgrounds, walks of life, and experience levels. You need to understand that you cannot use the same terms or language or style of delivery in every interaction. Reading people and learning people is essential to understanding them and how to express ideas, proposals, and information to them.
I have been very fortunate to have met, interacted, and learned from people of all walks of life in my personal life and career.
I started my legal career after graduating from Wake Forest University School
of Law by joining the public defender’s office. I called it boot camp. No sitting in an office all day coldly interacting with books and papers. I went, and I did, and I spoke with, and met people from every background. I met with clients who had stories no one had listened to before - I learned to speak for people who didn’t have a voice. I communicated with law enforcement and learned the backgrounds and motivations and people behind the badges. I dealt with judges and prosecutors - all humans who were often dealing in a fast environment without the resources to take in details or differentiate cases without someone to give them key facts. I learned fast effective communication. I learned to observe and listen to people to find the rhythm and timing of communication. I spoke with jurors who were pulled into a building carrying with them their own experiences and backgrounds. I learned to deal frankly with preconceptions.
After boot camp, I moved into private practice.
For the next 15 years I was fortunate enough to be mentored by and partner with the former US Attorney for the middle district of North Carolina.
I’ve served as corporate counsel for multimillion dollar companies during decades long federal investigations. I learned the stories and the language used in those boardrooms. I learned that, along with the facts, it was about communicating character and ideals, motivations and actions. I learned to speak and communicate the language of profit and loss, reputation, and ability to move forward in highly regulated markets. When communicating with a C suite executive about the legal framework and interpretations there is a different language and meter to use than when communicating with a federal agency investigator or assistant USAttorney about the same subject matter.
Private practice has allowed me to practice in all areas of law and communicate and learn the rhythm of every type of room.
I crafted, and continue to cultivate, how to communicate in the criminal or civil litigation arena, in the corporate boardroom, in audits, meetings with government regulators, on calls or site visits to customers, during fact finding interviews with employees and witnesses, and in highly crafted depositions. Communication and the ability to listen and learn how to communicate has been key to my career.
Everyone can teach you something, there is always a new nuance to learn about the law, and communication helps me use those tools to be a successful attorney and advocate.
But that’s just my opinion. Frankly, I’d rather listen to you tell me yours and see what I can learn from and about you.
Cheryl A. McDonald
