The Gazette 1988

JULY/AUGUST 1988

GAZETTE

longer terrifies me " ; " M y skills in court have increased and improved eno rmous l y ". It is now clear that the perceived benefits of training in advocacy transfer effectively to the actual arena. Perhaps it is not surprising that four out of five say they have already recommended the course to their colleagues. These results will make pleasant reading for the consultants pre- paring for the next residential course to be held in September and should encourage practitioners not to miss this training opportunity, available only once annually. Te c hno l ogy Comm i t t ee News The Technology Committee will be known to you as the Committee wh i ch in recent years has: (a) brought to you an Annual Exhibition to provide you w i th the opportunity of seeing at first hand the latest techno- logical developments; (b) provided you wi th a Hand Book to assist you in the purchase of your own Computer System; (c) arranged for you, more recently, the purchase of a FAX Machine at £ 1 , 0 0 0 . 00 less than the then current market price. The Comm i t t ee unde r t a k es many other projects on your behalf. In recent times it attempted to evolve a small project for the third level Institutions in order to get them thinking about technology in the legal world and how it can advance the solicitors office and the State offices (Courts, Registry of Deeds, etc.) that solicitors deal with. We have regular contacts w i t h these State offices, the results of wh i ch will become known to the profession when c hanges c ome a b o u t. These changes may be relatively small and invaluable such as the change in document presentation now permitted in the Registry of Deeds and Pr oba te O f f i c e s. Ot her developments may have much more profound significance such as the discussions going on at present w i th the Land Registry to assist t hem in advancing themselves t owa r ds full computerisation to enable, inter alia, solicitors to get direct on-line access to the Land Registry in a similar fashion to that p r e s en t ly ava i l ab le in t he Company's Office. You will be hearing from us shortly in relation to the offer of a P.O. w i th Printer at, what we hope will appear to you, an exceptionally good price! Fred Binchy.

Training in Advocacy how it works by Dudley Potter, Sol ici tor Joint Course Co-Ordinator

that way every member of the group present gets the benefit of the critique w i th its component of a demonstration by the consultant of how to do it better. The effect is one of rapid and manifest improvement as the participants have the opportunity for repeated attempts at performance of the different elements that constitute the course. In the later stages the different "building blocks" are put t oge t her and the participants conduct complete cases. Throughout the course each performance is recorded on video by a trained cameraman and there are several opportunities for each participant to see himself in action and to receive a private critique of his performance by one of the consultants. Most participants find this feature particularly helpful and indeed it is difficult for even the most gifted critic to match the impact of seeing oneself in action. These sessions are also reinforced in t hat pa r t i c i pan ts can see themselves improving as the course progresses. The E f f e ct A post-course review of how things worked out in practice, carried out after the September, 1987 course, brought responses from two-thirds of the participants. To a question " A re you performing better in the District Cou r t" over 8 0% gave a confidential " Y e s " and the balance "about the same". In accompanying comment an increase in confidence featured most often. Examples include: " I am not afraid to do District Court w o r k " . " I feel confident about tackling anything — I have the basics now — it is just a question of p r ac t i ce ". A s k ed wh e t h er t he ir performance in civil cases had improved as a result of attending the course almost all answered positively. Comments included: " I t could only improve as I never had the courage to run a civil case before the cou r se "; " A sense of confidence and having a definite plan of action to approach cases"; Yes — I have won my first full civil case "; "Cr oss examination no

The third residential Advocacy Course run as part of the Society's Co n t i n u i ng Legal Educa t i onal Programme will be held from the 23rd to 25 th September, 1 988, at Bellinter House, Navan. Like the first held in January, 1987, the second course held in September, 1987, was enthusiastically received by the participants whose number increased to 33 from the 24 on the first course. The teaching team for the third course will be:- Former High Court Judge Herbert McWilliam Former District Justice Wm. A. Tormey Barry Donoghue Robert J. Egar Michael E. Hanahoe John Hay Garrett Sheehan and Michael Stains, solicitors, while Professor John Sonsteng of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy in the U.S. will be a guest con- sultant. The essential component of the approach adopted are:- LEARNING BY DOING INDIVIDUALISED CRITIQUE VIDEO REVIEW AND CRITIQUE TEAM TEACHING LEARNING BY OBSERVING THE "BUILDING BLOCK" APPROACH There is little or no lecturing as such. Each phase of the training course is preceded by a five or, at most, ten minutes introduction to a video-taped demonstration of the aspect or technique to be taught, whether it be a bail application, a plea in litigation, examination-in- chief, cross-examination, sub- mission or a complete case. For most of their time participants are engaged, in groups of twelve, in c a r r y i ng out each of t hese functions in role-playing situations with three consultants contributing to the diagnosis of their perfor- mances and enhancement of their skills. As each participant finishes his role-play — which for most of the course will last only a very f ew minutes at a time — he is given an objective critique of his perfor- mance by the teaching team. In

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