Law School Listening, Courtroom Behaviors, Moot Courts Classes

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Learning Attending Behaviors and Effective Listening in Law School

What is attending behavior and effective listening? Attending behavior is used when meeting with clients and it is largely non-verbal communications. The goal is for the clients to know they are being heard and listened to by the lawyer. When a lawyer shows attending behavior the client feels he or she is worth listening to and is valued. This creates a good rapport between the lawyer and client.

Attending behaviors and Effective Listening will help you keep focused and attentive to the client. Here are some attending behaviors you can practice with friends or in discussion with other students: Here are some non-verbal and non-language cues:

Eye contact, but not staring.
Non-language sounds like a sigh or a laugh when appropriate.
Non-words such as ''um'' or ''ahem''
Pitch and intensity of voice
Acknowledgements such as ''yeah'' or ''mmhmmm''
Body posture open or closed. Leaning forward is an open position to be attentive.
Arm movements (Leaning backward with arms crossed tightly is most often a closed position.)
Leg movements (Leaning forward with legs and arms crossed is an open position to the client.)
Head nods

The other effective learning skill you will practice in law school is being an effective listener. This is very important to understanding your client's story. Attending behaviors and effective listening skills involve the listener reflecting back his understanding of what the client is saying. You do not have to repeat word for word what the client said, you can paraphrase the entire thought into a short ''restatement.'' If you were practicing attending behavior and effective listening by using restatements with another law student who was telling you all about the troubles he/she had studying this week, then this is how it might go.

Your friend got too little rest, an increased work schedule and had a family emergency. So he says he missed reading the last two chapters for class today. A restatement focuses on the main point that he is not able to study. A ''restatement'' of the story you just heard could be summed up by saying,
''So, you know you didn't get enough study time in this week and you weren't prepared with your reading assignments.''

This type of response confirms to you that you picked up the key points coming across and it confirms to your friend that you heard him and you were intently using attending behavior and effective listening to his story.

The effective listening skill called ''restatement'' sounds incredibly easy to implement into your day to day listening opportunities so give it a try and listen to yourself to discover if you are truly adept or need to practice a little more. Practicing does make perfect and after a few times of effectively listening you will feel comfortable with ''restatements.''

''Summaries'' are useful at the end of you client meetings to verify you have understood all the important points related to the case from the client's view. ''Summaries'' are different from restatements as you collectively review all the key points covered in the client meeting. This is also a good effective listening skill to practice so that you are comfortable doing it naturally.

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