As an occupational psychologist who advises law firms on matters of selection, training and development, I spend much of my working day and many of my coffee breaks in the company of various shades of lawyer. Over the years, I have come to recognise the lull in the small talk and the slight sideways look that presages the inevitable question “so, you’re a psychologist – tell me, what’s the ideal psychological profile for a lawyer then?”
For years, I have managed to bluff my way through this question by muttering things about there being ‘horses for courses’, ‘many ways to skin a cat’, and other non-committal animal aphorisms to get myself off the hook. After all, these are clients of mine – I’m not going to suggest that they might be, well… slightly odd.
