Client Interviewing Skills workshops 2014/15

Tuesday 21 October marked the start of three client interview workshops occurring over the next month.

We began the session by brainstorming different qualities we felt were positive and negative when carrying out a client interview.

This led on aptly to a talk from Alexandra Stott, a Claimant Personal injury Solicitor from LA Law in Brighton. She gave us her opinion on the essential qualities for a good client interview. These included prompting the client for more information to get all the relevant details and not being afraid to ask the claimant to repeat something if you have missed or misunderstood the point.

She also highlighted obvious things that are often overlooked, like greeting the client with a smile to put them at ease or shaking their hands at the start and end of the session to maintain professionalism.

After a Q & A session with Alexandra, we all took a test to establish our own individual Communication style, followed by an exercise to gauge our ability to listen – both of which will be invaluable for later workshops.

It was a very useful session and hopefully as the weeks progress, not only will we improve our client interviewing skills, but two of us will be able to enter the National Client Interviewing Competition and win!

Submitted by Charlie Wheeler.