Legal work requires a broad set of skills. Developing the right skills helps you to perform well in your role and to thrive in a people-focused career that can be very demanding.
It is popular among asset managers and alternative credit providers for its derivatives and securitization expertise.
Excellent Communication Skills
Excellent verbal communication skills are essential for lawyers, Whether in a conference room or on the phone with a client. This includes conveying complex ideas in a clear, concise manner and understanding and responding to what others are saying. This skill can be honed through extra-curricular activities such as debating or public speaking societies and through experience working in a people-focused career like a lawyer.
A derivatives lawyer practices transactional and regulatory work, which means they need to communicate effectively in both settings. They need to be able to explain legal concepts and issues to their clients and prepare and negotiate contracts. Depending on the nature of their work, they may also be required to review and interpret laws, case law, or precedents to advise their clients appropriately. Therefore, they must have a solid attention to detail to spot errors in documents and sources. They must also be able to clearly and succinctly write and communicate their work in written form.
Excellent Organizational Skills
As a derivatives lawyer, you have a lot to accomplish each day. Within an eight-hour workday, you might speak with ten clients, make three court appearances, and handle four additional matters. This makes organization skills vital for effective attorneys.
Your organizational skills include the ability to plan and prioritize tasks. They also include your ability to track time and stick to deadlines. Create systems for achieving your goals, such as using a daily checklist or filing documents by category.
Other aspects of organizational skills include being aware of those you can call upon for assistance with a project and knowing how to communicate with each person involved in the task. This helps avoid miscommunication and wasting time while ensuring that each person’s abilities are utilized.
Demonstrate your organizational skills by providing examples of how you’ve managed projects in the employment history section of your resume. Use numbers to emphasize the impact of your efforts, such as how you saved a company money by streamlining an inventory process.
Excellent Analytical Skills
A derivatives lawyer should be able to analyze the impact and consequences of various economic situations. They should also be able to use models to determine the appropriate usage of derivative instruments. For example, they should be able to compare a default swap to a cash bond and decide which is better for the company’s needs.
Derivative lawyers review and negotiate complex over-the-counter derivative contracts with clients worldwide. They are often involved in complex and high-profile structured finance transactions, such as CLOs, mortgage securitizations, commercial paper conduits, and asset-backed financings. In addition, they advise the business and colleagues in the Legal Department on a range of regulatory issues affecting their coverage areas. They also play an active role in driving process, documentation, and efficiency improvements across the team. This is a highly demanding and rewarding role with excellent career progression prospects. It requires excellent analytical skills, drafting and negotiation capabilities, and strong stakeholder partnerships. It is a perfect opportunity to develop your expertise in a market-leading global financial services firm.
Excellent Negotiation Skills
Lawyers must negotiate regularly, whether settling lawsuits or closing business deals. Excellent negotiation skills can help you get what you want from an agreement and avoid misunderstandings.
Futures and derivatives law involves transactional work and regulatory duties, so you must understand and implement many laws. This includes securities and commodities laws, tax laws, bankruptcy laws, and other legal issues.
A strong negotiator will be able to identify their goals and objectives for the negotiation and communicate them to the other party. They will also be able to listen carefully to their counterparts and respond appropriately with counter-proposals and fallback proposals.
To hone your negotiating skills, try joining extra-curriculars like sports or debating societies, and look for opportunities to act as a student representative or a law firm ambassador while you’re still in school or university. These roles will allow you to practice your people skills and empathize with clients to build trusting relationships. Be sure to focus on your body language, too – being dismissive or argumentative will likely derail the negotiations.
Excellent Client Service Skills
As a derivatives lawyer, it’s essential to be able to deliver high-quality legal work that is tailored to the unique needs of your clients. This requires excellent client service skills, which include being responsive and attentive and understanding your clients’ business goals. It also means having strong attention to detail when reviewing and preparing contracts, as the slightest mistake can derail an entire project.
Futures and derivatives lawyers often work in large firms and cities with a heavy focus on financial trading, and they need to understand and implement a complex body of laws related to finance regulations. They need to be able to negotiate and prepare contracts and advise their clients on the best financial instruments to use for their specific needs.
For example, Foley & Lardner’s Milwaukee office handles the full gamut of derivatives matters and boasts notable expertise in the digital assets markets. Its attorneys represent a range of financial institutions, swap dealers, and brokerage firms on enforcement and regulatory issues pertaining to derivative transactions. Their team also handles sophisticated hedging and financing transactions, including securitized derivatives, margin loans, and repo arrangements.
