Supervision skills for family law solicitors

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Best Practice for Supervising Trainees and Junior Solicitors

by Suzy Ashworth, Our PSL Ltd

*This article was originally published in two parts in the September and October 2011 editions of the Resolution Review

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Introduction

The Resolution Skills Committee recently kindly asked me to prepare and present a short course on supervising trainees and junior solicitors, which took place in London at the end of June 2011. This article sets out some of the principles we discussed at the session and aims to provoke thought about what Resolution members are and should be doing to encourage, nurture and get the best out of those entering our profession.

Regulatory Framework

First, a short reminder of the regulatory framework in which solicitors supervise junior colleagues. This consists primarily of Rule 5 of the Solicitors’ Code of Conduct 2007 and the Law Society’s accompanying Supervision Practice Note of 10 March 2010 (www.lawsociety.org.uk). The SRA’s requirements for Training Trainee Solicitors are accompanied by Guidelines on Supervising Trainees (www.sra.org.uk). These are helpful documents, and essential reading both for supervisors and for junior lawyers as they set out the expectations and responsibilities of the wider profession. Resolution itself has the Code In Practice course which all members are expected to undertake in their first year of membership; but nothing else. Is there any appetite, I wonder, for translating the general principles on the supervision of junior solicitors into our specific family law framework, to better set out our own expectations and responsibilities?

Time Management

It seems that family lawyers are sometimes reluctant to take on the supervision of trainees or junior fee-earners because of time pressures. However, time management skills can benefit most of us and are arguably a cornerstone of what we should be teaching our new lawyers. Carefully prioritising and blocking time for different types of task, setting firm boundaries and keeping careful track of outstanding and delegated tasks really can seem to create hours in a week. The sooner that everyone learns an effective system for time management, the more productive they can become. The supervisor leading by example will reap significant rewards. Consider this: what steals your time? What time-management skills do you have to pass on to those starting out, or is this an area in which you feel you could improve?

Effective Delegation

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Delegation skills are an obvious requirement for those bringing on junior staff. Developing effective ways of communicating and ensuring that the channels remain open for clarification and progress reports will ensure that mistakes and lost time are kept to a minimum. I advocate adopting the SMARTER model for family law delegation: that delegated tasks should always be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timetabled, Ethical and Relevant. There is a school of thought that says that effective delegation must be in written form to limit the chance of misunderstanding, but this is not always realistic. As ever, much depends on the progress of the junior solicitors and the nature of the task. Do you, or could you, delegate SMARTER?

What to teach junior staff

At the training session, the question people most wanted answered seemed to be: what should we teach them? In a broad church like Resolution, where the ambit of what we do extends from legal aid specialists, to public children law, to billion-pound financial applications and everything in between, it is clearly impossible to dictate a one-size-fits-all core training programme. However, should Resolution lead the way by establishing guidelines for basic learning in each area, or is this something for each individual firm to think about? As a starting point, in any practice, it should be possible to put together a series of bundles of materials for use by trainees or juniors to enable them quickly to get a handle on the fundamentals of your work. Producing a short narrative explanation of the area, together with blank and specimen completed forms and references to texts and online resources giving more detail only needs to be done once (although reviewed regularly) and will save everyone’s time. Allocating a couple of hours in the first week to take your junior colleague through the way the team works, the way you work, the basics of the law and procedure and how to use their dictation machine will mean that they can hit the ground running.

Here I have concentrated on the framework for supervision, time management, delegation, and core learning, but there is more to say about supervising effectively: how to teach the business skills and soft skills needed to be a generation 2.0 family lawyer, the place of ADR, mentoring, fostering trust, and the art of giving feedback to name a few. This article ends here, but the debate is just beginning.

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Part II

In the last issue of the Review, in my article "supervising trainees and junior solicitors", I wrote about developing junior solicitors' legal and business skills in family law practice. I concentrated particularly on time management, effective delegation and core learning. In this article, I focus more on how to foster business development skills, soft skills and developing the relationship of trust between supervisor and junior solicitor.

Developing business

We all know that as a family lawyer these days, it is not enough simply to be good at your job. You need to know how to market yourself and your firm effectively, and this job can no longer be left to senior team members. Indeed it should not be: solicitors entering the profession now tend to have in-depth knowledge of a wide range of marketing techniques involving social media, mobile



communications, and peer-group networks which complement the traditional marketing techniques used by more mature practitioners.

Although there are excellent seminars available on business development techniques, it is not a theoretical enterprise. You get better at it by doing it, and by watching people who are already good at it. Encouraging junior solicitors to attend the seminars, lunches or events you go to will give them the confidence to find their own way with their own contacts. Giving junior solicitors the opportunity to feed in their own ideas about the business development of your team and its forward progress is excellent personal development for them and will pay dividends for the practice. Anecdotal evidence suggests that connections made in the early years of practice are more durable than those made later, so encouraging them to firm up and capitalise on their contacts will expand your team’s network of influence.

The main burden on the supervisor in this area is needing to ensure that your junior solicitors are “on message” about all areas of your practice before they enter the business development fray. You may find that there is a particular lacuna in their understanding about alternative dispute resolution, as detailed training in mediation and in collaborative law is still restricted to those of higher qualification levels. If your junior solicitors are to be ambassadors for your firm, it is essential for you that they should present your family law practice as you would wish it to be seen.

Soft skills

To progress and excel as a family lawyer it is essential to have “soft skills” that enable you to connect with a client appropriately and inspire confidence. Young solicitors can often lack confidence in this area. I am a firm believer that an introductory-level counselling skills course is a good grounding for all junior family lawyers in how to listen sensitively, and ensure that you maintain professional boundaries. Junior solicitors working in family law are more likely to become overwhelmed with clients’ difficulties and to find themselves less able to draw a clean line between work and the rest of their lives. Facilitating self-awareness and knowledge of boundaries is an essential part of supervising junior solicitors to give them the tools to avoid burn-out. Junior solicitors should have access to details of local trusted counsellors (and other professionals) to whom they might refer clients who are in need of personal support.

Fostering trust

A trusting relationship between supervisor and junior solicitor will enable them to feel they can come to you with issues that may be hampering their development or, indeed, negligence risks. An attitude of openness that gives them the confidence to speak up if they have made a mistake will ensure that these (almost inevitable) early errors do not become concealed, snowball and become more costly.

Effective supervisors understand that there is more to listening than taking in what someone says. Making time and listening actively with full attention, noting not only what is said but also body language and tone of voice can give an insight into the full picture which you might otherwise miss. Communication improves when each person is attuned to the other’s manner of speech and type of language, as messages can be phrased in a way that they are better able to be heard. This is essential



for tasks such as giving constructive feedback and performance reviews, promoting the more constructive exchange of information and views between you.

You may also wish to consider introducing a mentoring system to run alongside the supervision of junior assistants. A system that formally pairs up members of staff at similar qualification levels to provide a sounding board, support, or a different point of view for working issues may be particularly useful, for example, with young solicitors seeking to balance working life with young families.

Conclusion

It can feel like a big ask to become a supervisor for junior solicitors. However, working with young people in our profession can be an immensely rewarding task and can produce insights and revelations about family law and practical ways of working that can revolutionise the day-to-day in the office. There is an argument that we as a profession have neglected our juniors too long, and it is time to address the "sink or swim" culture that remains in many places from the old days of the articled clerk. Trainees and junior solicitors have so much to offer us and it is our responsibility to ensure that they have the tools for lengthy and happy practice in family law, whatever the future of the profession holds.

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Supervision skills for family law solicitors

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