Why emotional intelligence trumps technical knowledge when returning to legal practice

If you’re a lawyer considering a return to practice after a career break, you’ve probably worried about keeping up with the latest legislation, regulatory changes, or procedural rules. But in the Obelisk Returners’ Programme we hear the same message from the leaders who speak to us- you’re focusing on the wrong thing. 

“It’s almost irrelevant to me whether they know the law or not,” one senior legal counsel revealed during a recent discussion.  

It’s a statement that might seem counter-intuitive, even shocking. But coming from leaders who’ve built global teams and conducted countless interviews over recent years, this perspective offers a refreshing—and liberating—insight into what modern in-house teams actually value.

The Easy Part vs. The Hard Part

The logic from experienced hiring managers is straightforward. “Those are the skills, and the information that are easily accessible,” they explain about technical legal knowledge. “You can easily find out about recent legislation or regulations. These days AI will tell you in minutes! Your skill as a lawyer is your ability to apply it, how you adapt, how you solve problems, how you react in certain situations, and your soft skills.” 

This isn’t just theoretical. In-house legal teams at multinational organisations manage work across multiple jurisdictions and time zones, dealing with everything from multi-million-pound contracts to data privacy issues, asset financing, and emerging areas like AI and sustainability services. In these complex environments, what actually matters becomes clear 

What Actually Matters

So what are these crucial soft skills? The list might surprise you with its simplicity: 

• • Be helpful 
  • Be willing 
  • Be visible 
  • Be inquisitive 

“If you enter the workplace with all of those skills and the determination to be helpful, you will probably be more successful than most of the people currently in the workplace,” one hiring manager observed. “Because I think people do lose perspective on how simple that equation is. You are getting paid to be helpful. How is it you are going to help?” 

It’s advice echoed across in-house teams. That willingness to help, to take on problems even when you don’t know the answer, to support your team—these are the qualities that make someone indispensable. 

Investopedia – February 2026

The High Performer Problem

The emphasis on soft skills from GCs isn’t just preference—it’s born from hard experience. Many are candid about team members who excel technically but struggle interpersonally and are time consuming to manage.  

High performers whose knowledge is impeccable but whose attitude becomes problematic are a common challenge for leaders (check out Simon Sinek’s simple explanation of “Performance vs Trust” which explains who are the most valuable people in an organisation).  

Contrast this with someone who brings genuine willingness. As one GC told us “Somebody who’s just really helpful… they are worth their weight in gold. When you’ve got people in your team who are always asking “How can I help? I might not know the answer, but I’ll go and figure it out for you”. It’s like a breath of fresh air!” .

The Returner Advantage

This is where lawyers returning after career breaks have a distinct advantage. Whatever you did during your time away—caring for family, running a business, supporting a partner’s career, managing complex personal situations—you’ve developed emotional intelligence that many career-track lawyers simply haven’t needed to cultivate. 

What you will have gained in your experience, whatever that career break was, is really valuable as part of you. The key is being able to articulate it.

Emotional Intelligence in Practice

What does emotional intelligence actually look like in an in-house legal team? GCs describe it as “interacting with teams, knowing when to step in, knowing when to be quiet, knowing when to lend your voice.” 

It’s about dealing with internal stakeholders, managing relationships, and navigating complex organizational dynamics. In the words of one GC- “If you have that emotional intelligence to get on with the team, and you can show me that you’ve solved complex problems, dealt with stakeholders and solved challenging situations, I know you’re going to be able to go and find out that information, interpret it, and solve that problem.” 

The technical part? That’s the easy bit!

Making Your Case

So how do you translate this into your job search? The advice from hiring managers is clear: focus on articulating the soft skills you developed during your career break. 

Don’t apologize for your career break. Own it. Celebrate it. Connect the dots between what you experienced and what the role requires. If you managed a household budget through financial difficulties, you understand resource constraints. If you advocated for a child with special needs through school systems, you know how to navigate bureaucracy and build consensus. If you started a business, even a small one, you understand commercial reality and risk in a way many lawyers never will. 

What you bring by having that unique experience in your own life is something that will be interesting, and something that will be unique, and that will be something of value. 

You Know When You Have a Dream Team Behind You

One GC summed up what matters most with striking simplicity: “You know when you have a team of people behind you who are trying to help you, and you know when you haven’t got a team of people trying to help you. In one time you feel like you are flying, and the other time you feel like you are dragging people along.” 

For lawyers returning to practice, this is genuinely good news. You don’t need to have memorized every regulatory update from the past five years. You don’t need to pretend your career break didn’t happen or apologize for the life choices that led you away from practice for a while. 

What you need is to understand that the maturity, resilience, problem-solving ability, and emotional intelligence you developed during that time are exactly what forward-thinking in-house teams are looking for. The technical knowledge? That’s the easy part. You’ve already got what matters most.

Conclusion

Returning to legal practice isn’t about catching up—it’s about reframing. The most successful returners aren’t those who fill every technical gap, but those who recognise the value they already bring. In-house teams want collaborators and problem-solvers, not just legal encyclopaedias.

Your mindset matters more than your memory. Curiosity, adaptability, and a willingness to help will take you further than perfect technical recall. The law can be relearned—but emotional intelligence, perspective, and resilience are what truly set you apart.