Successful in-house leaders need to be jacks of all trades with legal skills, business skills and, now, interpersonal ones, too. As legal department lawyers vie for more clout within the business, sources said that soft skills, not just traditional legal chops, have real importance.

The desire to build these skills sets was on display at the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium’s annual institute last week in Las Vegas. At the conference, there were numerous sessions built around teaching soft skills such as public speaking and projecting confidence, as lawyers and legal ops professionals aim to develop these leadership abilities.