It is no secret that law schools and law firms prioritize “intelligence” when deciding which students or lawyers will be invited to join their ranks. A high IQ (traditional intelligence quotient) and a certain degree of EQ (emotional intelligence), the commonly used barometers, are not enough to guarantee that a law student or associate will thrive in the increasingly global legal market. For budding lawyers within this international marketplace, the definition of required intelligence should be expanded to include CQ, or cultural intelligence.
A professional with a high CQ can operate with agility and ease in foreign cultural settings. CQ guru David Livermore scientifically breaks CQ into four quadrants: CQ drive (motivation to become culturally competent), CQ knowledge (learning the micro and macro differences between cultures), CQ strategy (a plan to navigate these differences) and CQ action (the confidence to cross the cultural divide).
