Core Interviewing Skills Training

We developed this course to help law firms who felt that their more junior lawyers had not received a proper grounding in interviewing skills.

Whilst many junior lawyers had received some basic input on the need to ask open questions and funnel their enquiries from the broad to the particular, many training managers and partners we spoke to felt that these lawyers still needed solid, practical support to ensure that they could actually use the skills practically rather than simply recognise them in theory.

Example training course
The purpose of this practical course is to develop core interviewing skills. It’s aimed at trainees and 0 to 5-year qualifieds.

Learning objectives
During the course participants will:

discuss and then practise each of the core skills to the right
participate in a complete interview in small groups, so as to draw on all the skills that have been discussed and practised earlier in the day and use them within the structured model. The vehicle for this interview will be a well-researched and well-designed role play based on typical work at your firm.

By the end of the course participants will be able to:

plan and prepare systematically for an interview
use a straightforward structure for their interview to ensure they give appropriate weight to:
- the interviewing environment
- explaining the purpose of the interview and managing witnesses? and clients? expectations
- reassuring the witness or client
- building rapport
- explaining the interview process
- using their interviewing techniques
- concluding the interview
pay proper attention to witnesses and clients, and listen to and fully understand their positions
use a series of professional interventions to give maximum help to the witness or client
work with witnesses and clients to overcome any reticence or unwillingness, so that they achieve good co-operation
recognise the value of using appropriate styles of questioning, listening and summarising when gathering information
recognise the different signs and signals that people give off when they are telling the truth, being evasive or lying
recognise good practice for taking notes
evaluate the success of the interview so as to learn from each experience for next time.

Core Interviewing Skills Training

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