Why Sound Legal Advice Still Gets Ignored and What Great Lawyers Do Differently
Influencing skills for Law firms
A look at how one lawyer shifted from resistance to rapport and became a trusted partner in the boardroom.
No matter how clearly a lawyer lays out the risks, there are moments when logic alone doesn’t land. The client nods, asks a few questions, but the direction doesn’t change. Sometimes, they even dig in. The lawyer – armed with evidence and acting in good faith – finds themselves unheard, sidelined, or dismissed.
Why does this happen? And more importantly, what makes the difference when it doesn’t?
Emma, a corporate partner at a top-tier law firm, had been working with a longstanding client – a mid-sized pharmaceutical company – on a potential acquisition. The deal was commercially attractive but legally fraught. The target company had a patchy regulatory history in overseas markets, and the compliance risks were significant. Emma’s legal advice was clear: proceed with extreme caution – or preferably, don’t proceed at all.
Why Sound Legal Advice Still Gets Ignored and What Great Lawyers Do Differently
But the CEO had other ideas. He saw the deal as a pivotal opportunity to grow their pipeline and impress investors. When Emma first delivered her advice, his reaction was cool. He acknowledged the risks but made it clear he wanted solutions, not barriers.
Emma left that meeting frustrated. She had laid out the risks in detail – why wasn’t the client listening? Her instinct was to push harder, bring even more data, more legal precedent, more certainty.
That’s when she came to us looking for support.
Shifting from Insistence to Influence
We helped Emma see what social psychology has long shown: insistence leads to resistance. The more she pushed her position, the more the CEO pushed back – not because he disagreed with the facts, but because he felt cornered between legal caution and commercial pressure.
Through coaching, Emma began to step back and reflect. She saw how her need to be “right” was undermining the relationship. Her frustration was clouding her empathy. She had started to see the CEO as the problem.
That shift – from judgment to curiosity – was the turning point. She met the CEO again, not as someone making a reckless decision, but as someone grappling with complex, competing priorities.
Motivational Interviewing: Asking Before Advising
Emma also learned to use motivational interviewing techniques – asking open, exploratory questions before guiding the client. For example:
- “What’s driving the urgency on this deal for you?”
- “What outcomes matter most to you, commercially and personally?”
- “What’s your biggest concern if we walk away from this?”
The CEO leaned in. He spoke about shareholder expectations, personal credibility, and the fear of losing ground to competitors. Emma reflected back what she heard – acknowledging his perspective without surrendering her own.
This didn’t dilute her legal position. It strengthened it – because now, the conversation wasn’t a battle of wills. It was a joint exploration of risk, value, and possibility.
Making the Client the Problem Solver
Emma also shifted her stance from directive to collaborative. Instead of prescribing next steps, she asked:
- “Given what we now understand, how do you think we could move forward while protecting the business?”
- “What might a more phased or conditional approach look like?”
The CEO proposed a staged deal, embedding regulatory safeguards into the agreement. Emma helped shape the legal architecture around that. Crucially, the solution came from him. He owned it – and with her support, he made it work.
Leading with Story, Not Just Evidence
Finally, Emma drew on a technique we often coach at Threshold: use story to unlock insight. She shared a personal example (anonymised but real) of another client who had faced a similar dilemma. That client had taken a phased approach, preserving both commercial momentum and legal integrity.
It wasn’t the facts that changed the CEO’s mind. It was the story – a social proof of what was possible.
The Outcome
The deal went ahead, but on safer, smarter terms. The CEO left the conversation feeling supported, not obstructed. Emma became more than a lawyer – she became a trusted strategic advisor, with a seat at the table in future planning meetings. Emma was able to achieve this because she had the self-awareness to reach out for help and a mindset that was open to learning.
Influence through experiential learning
At Threshold, we help lawyers build this kind of influence through experiential learning. Our workshops use high-stakes simulations with professional roleplayers, enabling participants to practise the skills they need in real time – open questioning, reframing, rapport, and perspective-taking.
We focus on embedding learning in muscle memory, not just theory. Our feedback is grounded in evidence from the fields of social psychology and communication science. And we build in strategies for reinforcement – so the change sticks long after the workshop ends.
Because ultimately, influence isn’t about pushing harder. It’s about seeing more clearly, listening more deeply, and helping clients discover their own best thinking
At Threshold, we are helping our clients to ensure that their human workforce is committed, engaged and ready for the technology revolution. We do this by bringing about small shifts in line manager behaviour that make a big difference. To find out more visit www.threshold.co.uk
