Keble: “intense”
I stumbled through the narrow entrance to Keble College not really knowing what to expect from my week in Oxford. It was a little bit like my first day at university. I arrived far too early, looked lost for a good 20 minutes, eventually found my room, dumped my bag and introduced myself to people by asking the same predictable questions about where they were from etc. etc.! The similarities ended there because, unlike university, it was straight to work. We’d been provided with course materials a few months previously and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t require preparation. It did. Indeed, the real benefit of a course like Keble is the opportunity to test your case analysis skills, advocacy and tactical judgment with some of the leading practitioners in your field. They know the papers inside out and it would definitely help if you did too!
Teaching takes place in groups of eight. My group was a real mix, with participants from the CPS, ICTY, the Army and overseas jurisdictions. It was great to see different styles of advocacy. You stay in your groups for the week and practise witness handling, speeches and appellate advocacy, which all lead up to the final day when you’ll conduct a mock trial before a jury of keen Oxford locals. The teaching itself is terrific. You’ll be given a ‘masterclass’ demonstration before each exercise and if you’re like me, you’ll want to scribble down as much as possible to pass-off as your own at some future time and place! But seriously, it’s a great opportunity to observe some great advocates and to see how they handle the issues in your case. Once in your groups, each exercise is filmed and a member of faculty provides instant feedback and a demonstration of how you might do something differently or otherwise improve. Your performance is then reviewed by another member of faculty before your second and fingers-crossed, improved, performance. It’s a really useful exercise.
For me, the highlight of the week was the experts day. And yes, they are real experts. If, like me, you’ve had little exposure to expert witnesses then this part of the course is worth its weight in gold. You’ll conduct a conference with your expert, which is a great experience. It’s quite frightening to realise just how little you know about something, especially when your conference is to prepare for your imminent cross-examination of your opponent’s expert! And believe me; they’ll make things as tricky for you as they possibly can, too. Sounds tough? It is!
It’s that final point that really underlines the benefit of Keble. It’s an opportunity to practise, to learn and above all, to make mistakes somewhere other than the courtroom.
Duncan Milne
The word most apt to describe the experience of participating in the SEC’s International Advanced Advocacy Course at Keble College is “intense”! A huge amount of teaching, learning, and socialising is crammed into the five days of the course. The course is pitched at a more advanced level than other advocacy courses I have attended and is more focused on specific practice areas, which makes the advocacy exercises both more relevant and useful. The expert witness day, where financial stream participants learn to deal with and (attempt to!) cross-examine expert accountants from Deloitte in particular provided a rare opportunity for a very junior commercial practitioner to acquire experience of that kind.
Another very rewarding aspect of the course is the international perspective which both the faculty and the participants bring. The faculty are drawn from all over the common law world, including Australia, South Africa, the Caribbean and Pakistan, and the process of learning from highly experienced and talented practitioners from different backgrounds serves to highlight the extent to which advocacy skills transcend jurisdictional boundaries.
The collegiate atmosphere of the course, which is obviously enhanced by its setting at Keble, is also worth emphasising. This atmosphere extends not just amongst the participants themselves but between participants and faculty as well. It is not often that one has the chance to discuss the ethical rules governing lawyers before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) over a drink with a current ICTY prosecutor before debating the finer points of employment law (or the future of the Bar) with a High Court judge over dinner.
The course is certainly difficult and requires an awful lot of work, but I’m sure all of the participants felt by the end of the full trial on the last day that it had been well worth it.