The work will be invaluable for practitioners who need to acquire or enhance the skills required to build and maintain client rapport in professional practice.
Legal Interviewing — A How to Guide is for those who wish to learn how to conduct an initial legal interview effectively.
The importance of good interviewing is explained and the book includes strategies for effective interviewing, handy checklists, clear and practical examples for analysis, and exercises for practice and review. Common mistakes in interviews are highlighted.
The text is written within a clear theoretical framework. Lawyers are encouraged to see the interview as a dynamic whole and also as part of the entire process in which effective practices are married with knowledge of substantive law and with an understanding of various ethical precepts.
Marlene Le Brun is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Law at Griffith University. Marlene has worked in private practice and as a consultant. She has also taught law in five university law schools over the past thirteen years. She ran a clinical legal education program at the University of Papua New Guinea and introduced client counselling into the Griffith law curriculum in 1992. Marlene has published widely in the area of legal education and is one of the edtiors of the Legal Education Review.
Kay Lauchland is an Associate Professor of Law and the Interviewing Coordinator for the Law Faculty of Bond University. She has ten years experience as a law lecturer, including two years with the Legal Practice Course, Queensland University of Technology, and five years teaching professional legal skills at undergraduate level and in continuing legal education workshops. Kay previously worked as a solicitor in the commercial litigation department of a large Brisbane law firm.