Intercultural communication for legal professionals

As an increasing number of law firms open offices all over the world, lawyers often either find themselves working in an international team or working on a multi-national assignment – or both! This can make the task of providing high-quality legal services challenging to say the least.

An understanding and appreciation of different working styles, decision making processes and communication styles is key to building  successful business relationships, gaining trust and creating opportunities in today’s global market. This module deals with the specific challenges encountered when working and communicating with people from different cultural backgrounds and equips you with the knowledge and tools to successfully communicate ‘across borders’.

Who’s it for?

This particular workshop is a must for legal professionals doing business on the global stage. Whether your company has recently merged with a foreign subsidiary or you are preparing for a foreign assignment, this module will address the most important aspects of cross cultural communication.

Learning outcomes

The aim of this module is to help you understand, adjust and adapt to cultural differences with a focus on what occurs when individuals from one culture interact and communicate with individuals from another culture. Own experiences are central to the course and a variety of techniques are applied to demonstrate the do’s & don’ts of intercultural communication. On module completion participants will:

Have gained important insights into the effect of culture on day-to-day activities in the workplace

Have learnt useful strategies for improving cross-cultural communication

Have developed strategies on how to build successful cross-cultural relationships

Have a greater understanding of decision making processes and meeting and negotiation styles of different cultures

Course Outline:

• What is culture and its impact on the workplace?
• Culture and doing business: how do culturally determined behaviour patterns influence the way you do business?
• The business environment: attitudes to time; relationship building; communication style; hierarchy; decision making
• Meeting & negotiation styles
• Strategies for success: tips and techniques to help succeed and progress in the marketplace

Approach:

“Intercultural Communication for legal professionals” is available as part-time (five half days) or full-time (two full days) course.  Please see the LTD-Acadamy website for dates and locations of our public courses (www.ltd-academy.nl). Our in-company programmes are tailored to your company’s requirements and are available throughout the year. We would be happy to discuss a programme and format which suits your company’s needs and wishes.

PS:
English Communication Skills for Lawyers is available as a 1-day programme for experienced lawyers and a 2-day programme for junior/recently graduated lawyers