This course will introduce you to the techniques of trial advocacy.
Using methods by which barristers are taught advocacy skills at the Inns of Court in the UK and the Australian Advocacy Institute, you will learn and practise skills such as: principles of persuasion; rules of court conduct and etiquette; applications to the court; opening speeches; examination-in-chief; cross-examination; re-examination; closing speeches; and the drafting of related court documents.
You will learn some of the skills that help you be a valuable junior lawyer in court.
You will learn and perform the skills in class and in groups, critiquing others and being critiqued. The course will require constant and active participation in class. You will learn to give and receive feedback, and be encouraged to reflect on it and learn from it.
Your lecturer is a civil practitioner - https://www.shortlandchambers.co.nz/barristers/nic-scampion - so the course will have a civil focus, but many of the skills will also be transferable to criminal practice.
There will be guest speakers from the litigation profession - likely from the ranks of KCs and the judiciary.
Assessment will be through the performance of exercises during the course, such as the examination of witnesses and making applications or submissions to the court, the drafting of court documents, and an individual research essay on a topic related to trial advocacy.
Because this class involves in-class practical exercises and peer review, numbers on this course will be strictly limited. In-person attendance is required.