A client can receive technically accurate legal advice and still feel unsure about what to do. The missing piece is often the connection between the legal analysis and the business decision in front of them.
Commercial awareness starts with curiosity. What is the client trying to achieve? What is driving the timing? Where are the financial pressures? What would a workable outcome look like for the people who have to implement it?
Understand before you explain
Those questions help a lawyer recognise which legal points matter most. They also make it easier to explain risk in language the client can use when weighing options and deciding what to do next.
Clear communication requires choices. Decide what the audience needs first, what detail can follow, and how to make your recommendation understandable without losing the nuance that matters.
Practise the conversation
These skills develop through application. Put lawyers into realistic scenarios. Ask them to explain the issue to a client with competing priorities. Let them rehearse a presentation, handle questions and receive focused feedback.
A useful exercise is to ask participants to explain the same issue to a finance director, an operational manager and a board. The underlying analysis may be similar; the emphasis, vocabulary and next steps will change.
As AI becomes part of legal workflows, the ability to question, interpret and communicate information deserves deliberate attention. Clients need advisers who can connect an answer to the wider business context and take responsibility for their judgment.
This is the thinking behind Thinking and Speaking Like a Business Leader, the masterclass I developed with public-speaking coach John Deery. It connects commercial awareness, client influence and speaking practice around one purpose: making expertise more useful to the client.
After your next piece of advice, will the client know what matters, why it matters and what to do next?