Talking tripe part 3

There was one occasion of talking tripe which was viewed in a most unfortunate way which was wholly wrong in the circumstances.

All of the Inns undertake a variety of different types of advocacy training. Lincoln's Inn essentially operates two types. There are specific advocacy training courses. On those the entire focus is on teaching advocacy for trainee barristers. There is also a slightly more relaxed setting, which is Cumberland Lodge. That weekend involves a wider range of activities for the students. I remember going when I was doing Bar Finals, and thought it was an excellent weekend. The weekend ranges across a number of different activities. On the Friday evening apart from dinner there is usually a talk by distinguished judge. There are various periods of free time. Included is an option to visit the Royal Chapel at Windsor on the Sunday morning, and a variety of talks some of which are less formal than others. There are addresses to the students about the process of finding pupillage and what you do when you are a pupil. Interspersed with these are various advocacy exercises where there are demonstrations for the students and they get an opportunity to have a go and then receive advice about what they did right and what they did wrong.

Various judges attend and can have a habit of staying a little longer than the programme indicates. That can make a things a little more challenging for the speakers than you would otherwise expect. I once heard a QC talking about an area of law and a House of Lords decision. As it happened one of the members of the House of Lords who had given the key judgement in that case was in the audience. He had stayed on from an earlier talk, and had a number of piercing questions to ask about the QC's interpretation of the decision, with which he but it disagreed. I once was giving a talk on the Chancery Bar to what I had been told would be an audience of student barristers. However when it came to it, there was also one High Court Judge, one member of the Court of Appeal, and one member of the House of Lords listening, all of whom had been luminaries of the Chancery Bar in their day. It meant that the exercise threatened to be rather different than the one expected. The nightmare scenario would be where you were planning to tell the students some amusing anecdote about an (unidentified) judge, and then found that the judge was actually sitting in the audience and would instantly recognize the story. Fortunately I have not yet known that happen.

However the judges staying on to listen can lead to unfortunate consequences. One such recently retired High Court Judge, who we shall refer to as Mr Justice X, decided to stay on to listen to the advocacy exercises. Although a very good lawyer he was a little deaf. The barrister doing the first presentation was a well-respected and tireless worker in relation to student matters. In order to relax the students before we started the proper exercises, it had been decided that the barrister would present a "spoof" piece of advocacy. He would include all of the mistakes which trainee barristers are told to avoid. These would include mumbling, losing your papers, obvious failure to be on top of the detail and keeping having to contradict yourself, poor body language and posture. It was thought that this would be amusing and a way to lighten things up and show students that the tutors could poke fun at themselves as well. Training is all about encouraging rather than belittling, and it is always difficult finding the balance to ensure that you correct mistakes without undermining the fledgeling advocates' self belief. This seemed a good way of doing it.

Unfortunately the rather deaf Mr Justice X did not hear the initial announcement that this was to be a spoof presentation. When it started he looked bewildered. As it continued he glowered. As it went on in chaotic fashion he was muttering in a voice which could be heard all around the room. "This is an outrage.", or "What chance have the students got when we have idiots like this try to show them how to be advocates? " and "I will make an official complaint at the first opportunity.". It was all eventually smoothed over, but it seemed a little hard that, even for a short time, a barrister who was trying to put students at their ease by talking tripe should attract such judicial hostility.