Pupil's Advocacy Course

As many of you will be aware, once you have started pupillage, you have to complete a compulsory advocacy course run by your Inn. What some of you may not realise, and certainly I did not, was that the course lasts 2 weeks!! Before you start thinking: 2 weeks holiday from chambers, woo-hoo!....think again! It was quite a lot of hard work, though ultimately useful and I made some new friends :-)

Mine just finished last week and I'm really glad its over. I'm actually looking forward to being back in chambers with some proper work to do! Maybe now I'll have more opportunity to publish some more [timely] posts.

The Noting Brief

Well, this was nice. One night in chambers, at around 6.30pm, I was given my very first brief!! OK, so it does not really count, as it was only a noting brief....but still....!!

The next morning I had to be in the Watford County Court and sit there and take notes of the proceedings. I don't know what other people make of that duty but, for me, it was every bit as arduous as I thought it was going to be. Its rather difficult to keep your attention focused for so long. Fortunately for me, the case was actually rather interesting and was made all the more entertaining by the defendant litigant in person, who abused the other participants in the proceedings at random intervals. Still, as difficult as it was, I got £125 per day and was at court for 2 days....drinks are on me......in around 3 years or so when I finally get paid for the work.