Readers' Course revisited - Victorian Bar

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Ian Freckelton SC of the need to start thinking about things beyond the traditional areas that we have taught. Nonetheless, everyone has to have the basic skills and one of my worries has always been that you constantly encounter advocates without them. If you haven’t got the basic skills, it’s hard to build on something further. IF: What are some of the developments in thinking about advocacy training? GH: One of the issues recognized internationally is the need for a statement of the basics so that you get a new teacher or any teacher or any pupil to a point where they have a good grip of the fundamentals. IF: And how does your Advocacy Manual lock into those issues? GH: The Manual attempts to create the sort of basic structure that everyone must have. It’s the minimum that everyone needs, from which more can be built. It is really a combination of what everyone has been thinking over the last 35 years. IF: What about its use outside the Readers’ Course? GH: Well, concert pianists go through their scales before they play their pieces. It’s not a bad thing to do. Tennis players hit out before they play their complex shots. It has an application in the context of refreshing what experienced advocates may have forgotten. Someone asked me how long it took. I said: ‘25 years plus 18 months’. One of the things that I am happy about is that we actually put into the book material about advocacy teacher training. So any person who teaches our readers can go to the chapter and find out what they should do when giving feedback to readers Ian Hill QC and what they should do when reviewing a video exercise. It’s a start. IF: Ian, if you had a wish list for the future of the readers’ course, what different things would you like to do? IH: I would like more time to start with. IF: Does that mean you would want the course to be longer? IH: No, I don’t think that would go down very well but it would be nice to have more time for people like me to devote to the Readers’ Course because a lot of it needs re-writing and that takes time. I would like to help to teach the instructors better because I think they really need to be trained. But on the other hand, we have a difficult balance. We can’t make it too onerous for the instructors because we rely upon their voluntarily giving up their time. We have to strike that balance. The other thing that I think needs to happen is more computerisation of the course. At the moment we hand out nearly all the exercises in hard copy which means someone has to photocopy them. We need to move to doing it on-line. Still many of the readers are saying that they prefer the material in hard form, but that will change. GH: In New South Wales and in England and in other courses that I have seen, the culture has changed so Fred will take a week off, given six months notice, and will VICTORIAN BAR NEWS Summer 2008 / 2009 27
say for three days or whatever be devoted to teaching at the Bar. It is no longer a question of whether you can spend a hour here or there. Our current system is a nightmare for those administering the Readers’ Course. At the moment there are two types of teachers in the course – the skills teachers and those who come along and give the lectures. For the latter, arguably, teacher training isn’t needed. But the skills teachers, those who take the readers through their performance, need to be well trained and consistent in their approach. IH: I must say, I am always impressed by the number of members of the Bar who are prepared to give up their time. GH: It’s fantastic – about 100 every course. IH: We went to Papua New Guinea in July and there were seven barristers there and there will be another seven in Fiji. At the moment we try to assess readers’ advocacy skills about three weeks before the finish of the course. That gives us some time to take those aside who are not progressing as well as they should and offer them some further instruction or encouragement. We have found that without exception the ones given that extra help come up to what we would consider a pass mark. GH: I think we are slowly getting rid of the thinking that advocacy can’t be assessed because it’s impressionistic. There are so many different things that are assessable, providing the assessors know what they are doing and work to a set of criteria that the readers are told about. Formulating criteria that are objective and can be consistently applied takes a little bit of training, but that has been done at universities for some time where students at undergraduate and postgraduate level have to be graded into distinctions, credits, passes, etc. for courses in advocacy. My experience is that assessors are generally within 5 per cent of one another in doing such assessments. IF: It’s not that sort of assessment you are looking for in this context, though. Isn’t it simply a matter of needing to identify people who haven’t yet achieved a basic level of competence? IH: Exactly. And George’s book has a role to play in this. IF: So do we assume that you and your team have started work on the advanced advocacy manual now? GH: No. Advanced advocacy is more for actual personal teaching rather than a manual. The basics are assumed and from then on the feedback that can be given is likely to be so diverse that it would be very difficult to standardise it. I don’t think we should even try to do so. IF: I wonder if we met in fifteen years time whether we would say something different because what you are saying about advanced advocacy is what people said 30 years ago about advocacy. GH: Probably. IF: That’s probably a good note on which to finish. Thank you, George and Ian, and good luck to you and your team, George, with the Advocacy Manual, which is available at all good legal bookshops and online at the Australian Advocacy Institute. Raise the bar with legalsuper ‘I have the knowledge and the experience to give you the personalised information and advice you need to achieve your financial goals.’ Introducing Scott Smith, the Victorian Bar community’s personal contact at legalsuper. Scott has long-term superannuation industry experience and is licensed to provide personal superannuation advice. To ask a question or to make an appointment with Scott, call (03) 9607 9396, 0401 107 093 or email ssmith@legalsuper.com.au legalsuper has a record of strong investment returns, offers exceptional insurance cover, returns all profits to members and is Australia’s largest super fund for the legal profession. Scott Smith Client Service Manager Victoria LEGS 27960 Prior to making any decision in relation to acquiring any interest in legalsuper, you should consider the Product Disclosure Statement which can be obtained on our website at www.legalsuper.com.au or by calling 1800 060 312. Legal Super Pty Ltd, 470 Bourke Street Melbourne, 3000. ABN 37 004 455 789 ASFL 246315 RSE L0002585 as the trustee for legalsuper. 28 VICTORIAN BAR NEWS Summer 2008 / 2009
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Readers' Course revisited - Victorian Bar

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