short polemic on how to be seriously good in CourtThe book is called ‘‘The Devil’s Advocate’’ because it may make yousee advocacy from a new perspective.Your assumptions will be challengedCHAPTER IThis book will take you three hours to read.I hope you may never forget it.I hope you will come back to it time and again.Keep it for reference.It’s been published in a small size so you can carry it about.It is full of good ideas which in the early years of your practice, youcan dip into while thinking of what to do in a case.With reading it, your advocacy will probably improve immediately.It’s almost guaranteed.This is not a reasoned academic text. It is a polemic. It is aboutbeing good in Court—no messing, no guff, no clever arguments, notedious endless proofs and justifications. It tells it as it is.It’s about how to do the job really well.Chapter IAnd it applies to all advocates of up to five years experience.It is designed to be read easily by anyone interested in becoming aneffective advocate, whether presently at school, in university, at lawschool, or in the early stages of doing the job at the Bar or as asolicitor.It is written with crime in mind. But many of the rules apply to thecourtroom in civil practice too.The book will make sense wherever the justice system is adversarial.Much of what is in this book has been or is being taught in Scotland,Ireland, India, South Africa, Hong Kong, Australia, Kenya, NewZealand, Canada, and the USA. Many of the techniques are beingembraced by the formerly communist countries of Eastern Europe.The rules of advocacy are travelling widely.I’ve written it in pretty much my style of speech from when I teachadvocacy students. The book should read like I am talking to you,with colour and enthusiasm. It shouldn’t feel like you are reading. Iam hoping the style will be effective in communicating what mayotherwise be a series of rather dull rules. My apologies if I appear toover-egg it in places, and drive you a bit nuts! But at least, you’llprobably remember what’s been said.Where I refer to an advocate or judge, I will use the expression ‘‘he’’as being I hope gender neutral.You won’t agree with everything you read.Good.At least you’re thinking.Thinking about advocacyEach page will contain one or two thoughts, no more. Some pageswill therefore be short.Some of them very short.Like this one.Try not to fly through the book.Instead, think about each page as you read it. Lodge each thought inyour mind.Don’t skim. Think.As for myself, I don’t pretend I can do advocacy right every time incourt, but I think I’ve come across what works. And I know I willalways be learning.CHAPTER IILEARNING ADVOCACYAdvocacy is a skill.The skill of persuasion.Like any skill, ADVOCACY CAN BE LEARNT.Up to a point.No one can be taught to be a brilliant advocate, just as no one canbe taught to be a brilliant pianist. Brilliance requires talent. Whetherany of us have talent is in the gift of the Gods.However, we can be TAUGHT COMPETENCE in advocacy.Competence is not making errors.We can be taught how not to make errors.Simply that. No more complicated than that. No errors.Just as most people can be taught to play the piano, so too can theybe taught advocacy. An error-free performance on the piano, likeperhaps a youngster playing Beethoven’s fairly simple ‘‘Fur Elise’’, iscreditable, will raise murmurs of approval, and generally cannot behugely criticised. The youngster may not be destined to be a brilliantpianist, but an error-free Fur Elise is something most youngsters canbe taught to play, even if a little woodenly.In the same way, we can learn an error-free performance in CourtBut unlike the pianist, an error-free performance in court issomething more It is highly unusual.Advocacy without errors is no small achievement.As with any skill, PRACTICE is what is necessary. Reading books like this will be perfectly useless in the absence ofpractice.We learn advocacy by doing.So practice. To practice.Practice. Practice. Practice.The ideas in this book are for trying out. If something does not workfor you, form that opinion after you have tried it and not before.There will be suggestions you disagree with, but what we must avoidis an armchair debate. TRY THINGS OUT, then debate them, notbeforehand.Advocacy should involve experimenting.Regularly.Trying to IMPROVE existing skills.Trying to create NEW skills.Don’t sit around. Get up and do.Practice in front of the mirror. Practice in front of friends. Practiceto and from work in the quiet of your mind on the train. Always belooking for ways of phrasing questions, turning phrases, encapsulating arguments, controlling witnesses, and more, and so on. Thinknew ideas and in time have the courage to try themIt is astonishing how few students and advocates have ever read anADVOCACY BOOK.There are large academic texts available from the USA, which aresometimes avoided, because they can appear intimidating. ...
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