Just had my very first advocacy lesson and as Iain Morley says, I need to practise, practise, practise!
My family have cheered up anyway, the dvd of my efforts made everyone laugh. If I'd known that I was going to be filmed, I'd have flown in my make-up artist and hairdresser to add the final touches, just before the performance. I'd love to say that, having got the first one out of the way, my nerves are now settled, but the thought of doing the bail application next time makes me feel quite nauseous. It is remarkable, that out of a total of 6 different subjects studied over the weekend, the only one on everyone's lips was 'advocacy'.
Talking of everyone else, the others are all pretty cool and some really put me to shame with their polished advocacy performances. Memo to me: MUST TRY HARDER.
Criminal Litigation was great. Civil Litigation was a little daunting, the volume of work required is enormous. Legal Research is turning out to be a bit like Marmite, some love it, many hate it. It isn't the actual legal research itself that is the problem, it's the rules surrounding the research record that has to be compiled, that causes frustration and annoyance amongst many. Hard copy research of Halsbury's Laws just isn't funny. It's too early to say what Opinion Writing will be like, but it will probably improve as the course progresses.
16 comments:
I haven't looked at my DVD yet. We luckily weren't filmed for the first Civil Advocacy session - which I have decided I hate, already.
Ditto Legal Research. When are you ever really going to need to show a research route?! Except to allow BVC provider to mark you as 'competent' in research.
My DVD isn't too bad, but I don't look like what I thought I looked like! I thought that I was putting plenty of emotion into the plea, but it was in fact, as dull as watching paint dry:-)
We have our Legal Research assessment the session after next, not looking forward to that. I think the minimum expected is 40 pages:-(
BM
Yo have your ASSESSMENT, not even a mock first? Tough. I am sure you will be fine though - just emulate everything they say re: the route!
I think it's the real thing, we get to do re-takes and if we fail the second time, we have to have additional tuition until the tutor is satisfied that we are up to scratch. I don't think that the mark goes towards our final assessment, it's just that we need to pass legal research to be allowed to progress onto the other subjects.
I'm sure that there is an easier way of explaining that, but having spent the day doing Criminal Litigation homework, my brain is frazzled and the studying has been painfully slow, I just couldn't find the custody time limits for various pretend defendants, guess my legal research skills let me down:-) Gave up in the end and went onto the CPS website, sorted in ten minutes, if only I'd thought of it sooner.
BM, we do get a mock. It's SGS6 (q1 only) with a hand in date for the end of Nov. They hand it back at the beginning of Jan, and tell us all how really crap we are. Then we get the real one to do, by the end of January. I have just been reading the model answer for this weekend's question, and now feel the need for copious amounts of alcohol.
legal research causes me a great deal of pain.
Great to see that you're taking so much trouble over the advocacy barmaid, it'll be a huge inspiration for everyone else in your group too I am sure.
BB. Oh, I thought SGS6 was the end of the Legal Research and it was just a matter of passing sooner or later. Deep joy that we have to do it all again in the new year.
Rocknlaw, It isn't that I'm not interested in the advocacy, I just got nervous and made a pig's ear of it. I had decided not to practise too much in case I was teaching myself bad habits, being part-time is a pain with practical exercises, we had no guidance as to what to say, or how long the plea should be and had to guess what to do.
Top tip: Learn to love those hard copy volumes of Halsbury's.
When you turn up to pupillage armed with nothing other than google, an out of date copy of the White Book and your nutshells you will be very dependent upon those dusty volumes.
Very few chambers actually appear to have much in the way of online resources and because subscriptions are costly, pupils don't always get access to them.
Don't know if this helps, but a few trusted pals and I divied up the litigation SGS work and took it in turns to prep them - prepared very detailed notes for our allocated share of the work and swapped. Cut down on the donkey work substantially and we all had very thorough notes for revision.
Guidance, fat chance. Apparently (because not one told us, and my crstal ball was broken) our PIM was meant to last 12 minutes. Mine lasted a mere 5. A tip to others. If a judge tutor announces that you have finished way too early, don't respond with a " I was going for pith and concision, madam". Personally, I thought this was a brilliant example of the thinking on one's feet that we fledgling advocates are meant to be learning. One look at the expression on my judge's face told me that thinking on one's feet is not the same as being a sarky, smartarse !
I like what ninon is saying an awful lot!
To a newbie, Ninon makes a lot of sense (and will make even more when he starts his own blog - cough). There are two problems with hard copy research for students, imho. Firstly, you are referred to loads of duff sources which no one uses and these phase the student; just concentrate on Halsbury's and it all of a sudden seems a lot less daunting. Secondly, the riff raff in the library (also known as LPC students) horde the Halsbury's and have no manners when it comes to library etiquette (and it's not as though they can read anyway). I found it a lot easier when I went to my Inn library instead; very civilised and not that difficult with a bit of practice. Still, nowhere near as convenient as sitting at home with a laptop, but with a commercial subscriptions to LNB being blistering expensive, you can see the merit in being able to resort to the hard copy sources even if it is only as a last resort.
BB- a newbie to the bar or to blogging? If you mean the latter I was unaware that becoming a veteran blogger made one an authority on hard copy legal research. If so, I look forward to racking up the hours of procrastination and sharpening my legal skills in the process!
I did like that bit, books are lovely things. However, I preferred the bit that entailed a significantly reduced workload.
I also agree wholeheartedly with you on the topic of Inn libraries; wonderful places.
*cough* Ninon is a lady *cough*
Seriously, really do recommend getting comfortable with navigating your way around Halsbury's, also hard copy case reports and the big practitioner texts like Chitty on Contract (oh. you. chitty, chitty contract. chitty, chitty contract I love you.), Kemp and Kemp, Blackstones, White Book etc.
Your BVC provider will be phenomenally over-resourced in terms of online subscriptions. It's easy to get lazy and very dependant on searching online.
This was something that I started to feel a little anxious about in the run up to pupillage. I've had access to nothing other than Lawtel and the library so far and my set are probably one of the better resourced civil sets.
Ninon, oops, sorry. It is certainly useful for a new bar student, such as myself, to have the benefit of the perspective from someone who has been there. You're the first person to make sense when it comes to why hard copy library skills are important. Our course provider's justification was a facile "because the BSB say so".
Take it from an old hand: one always fucks up in court. I have never done an appearance that I didn't think was rubbish.
However you *don't* want emotion. You are supposed to be dispassionate etc etc. Still, I am sure your BVC course will teach you this: was once told by a crusty old judge: " Mr [Geeklawyer] Cross examination doesn't mean cross examination". Never repeated that mistake!
Wow, BM, you have been visted by Mr Geek, no less. Does that now mean you are in his harem ?
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