NQ blog - May 2015: Practice makes perfect

How many of you play sports? Whichever type of sport you enjoy, I’m sure you would all agree that practice helps to improve your game. People often use sports analogies when speaking of litigation and practice within the courtroom. For example, the boxing analogy is often used to describe the role of the opposing advocates and the judge as being akin to two boxers and the referee.

As in any sport, practice at your court craft can help you win on game day. I recently attended a very enjoyably CPD course which explored a novel approach to practising your advocacy skills.

Everyone who attended had been tasked with preparing submissions in respect of a hypothetical personal injury case. We were each given a set of papers complete with record and medical reports etc. After having the chance to read the papers, we each had to make our submissions. There was, however, one unexpected twist – we were asked to do it on camera!

We thereafter had the opportunity to watch ourselves, with the added benefit of an analysis from an experienced solicitor who provided a very helpful critique of our presentation. We all received very helpful tips and hints. The exercise was designed to get us out of our comfort zones and, in doing so, force us to really think about our presentation skills and the aspects that we could all improve on.

It does feel strange to watch yourself but it can also be insightful in helping you to take a step back and spot aspects of your advocacy skills that you might want to work on. I would highly recommend trying this, especially to those of you who are just beginning to appear in court. Working on your skills early on can help you become successful in court very quickly, to the benefit of yourself and your client.