Transmenu powered by JoomlArt.com - Mambo Joomla Professional Templates Club

The Professional Standards and Development Committee of the Bar Council and the Continuing Legal Education Committee of the Kuala Lumpur Bar jointly organised a practical civil advocacy workshop recently. It was conducted by seven barristers from Lamb Chambers, London namely Paul Emerson, Timothy Frith, Paul Stewart, Shantanu Majumdar, Lloyd-Sefton-Smith, Matthew Winn-Smith and Helen Turnbull. There were 86 participants, which included members of the Bar, pupils, representatives from the Attorney General's Chambers and ILKAP as well as legal officers from the banks.

En. Rashid Ismail, the Chairman of the Continuing Legal Education Committee of the Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee, opened the workshop. He welcomed the participants and the speakers. Rashid then called upon Mr. Steven Thiruneelakandan, the Chairman of the Professional Standards and Development Committee of the Bar Council, to introduce the speakers and to speak briefly on the programme.

Steven recalled that the previous advocacy workshop conducted by Lamb Chambers (in 2005) had received "rave reviews" and that both the Bar Council and the KLBC were pleased to welcome back the barristers who had contributed to the success of that programme. Steven also noted that the English Bar had a tradition of perpetuating gold standards in advocacy. Thus, the programme offered participants the opportunity to learn from the English Bar and improve on the quality of advocacy here.

The workshop began with an opening address by Mr. Paul Emerson. Paul gave an overview of the programme and spoke on the importance of trial preparation and gathering evidence. The participants were then divided into seven groups and each group was led by a barrister from the Lamb Chambers team. The workshop sessions were as follows :-

1. Trial preparation/gathering evidence;
2. Opening Submissions;
3. Calling Evidence;
4. Cross Examination and Re-Examination;
5. Closing Submissions.

The group sessions were interactive and were punctuated by demonstrations/role-play. Participants were required to deal with a legal problem (breach of contract) and they were required to act as Counsel or as witnesses. The barristers, as the tutors, were on hand to guide and advise members in their respective groups. The group sessions were successful. Many of participants remarked that they found them to be very useful.

One of the highlights of the programme was the talk by the Honourable Chief Justice from the Falkland Islands, Christopher Gardner QC, who was previously the Head of Lamb Chambers. He spoke on the art of cross examining expert witnesses. One of the key points he made was that the advocate must always elicit from the opposing expert his agreement that the expert for the advocate side was well qualified in the field in question. His Lordship then participated in a demonstration of a cross examination of an expert witness.

The workshop ended at 6.30 pm on October 11, 2007. The certificates of attendance were handed out by Mr. Paul Emerson. Ms Helen Turnbull, on behalf of Lamb Chambers, thanked the Bar Council and the KLBC for organising the workshop and presented a memento. Mr. Ravindrakumar, the Chairman of the KLBC, then handed a token of appreciation to the barristers.

After all the intense and hard work, some of the participants invited the barristers and Chief Justice Christopher Gardner QC to drinks at Bar Savanh.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed