Career Options
To plea or not to plea?Don’t let Law and Order fool you: in reality most lawyers will never set foot in a courtroom. For law students and practising lawyers who want to hone their litigation skills, however, a number of resources are available to help them plead like a pro. By Brenda Cockfield |
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 [ 2007-11-28 ] |
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Training in litigation begins in law school. At McGill University (and most law faculties throughout Canada), second-year law students participate in a compulsory mooting competition where they are required to plead a case in front of a judge. For some law students, this initial experience can be a turning point. “The internal mooting contest definitely helped shape my decision to pursue a career in litigation,” says Marcelo Garcia, a recent graduate of the program. Garcia, who received a high pass in the competition, felt an instant fit with the role. In fact, the experience inspired him enough to try out in his third year for a spot on one of McGill’s highly competitive mooting teams.
Not only did Garcia secure a position, but the McGill squad of Michael Lubetsky, Joshua Krane, Frédéric Desmarais and Marcelo Garcia went on to capture a total of five trophies at the 2007 Pierre-Basile-Mignault civil law mooting contest at the Université Laval, including the trophy for best team.
As mock trials, mooting contests are an excellent training ground for future litigators. At the Mignault contest, mooters prepare “either a written appeal or a response to a fake judgement that has obvious errors in law,” Krane explains.
These written factums are the basis for the oral pleadings that tandem team members argue against other university teams. Preparation for the contest is intense and demanding. “Students put all their time and energy into it,” Krane says. “There is a strong desire to win and a strong commitment. You are representing your faculty and your school as a team.” Over a period of six months, the students work both independently and together preparing their arguments — spending up to 30 hours per week during some phases. And all this on top of their regular 45-hour-a-week course load! Intensive as it may be, Krane notes that preparing for the moot “teaches you how to manage your priorities and gives you a perspective on how lawyers balance impending trials with other commitments.” For Garcia, who came to law school having already completed a master’s degree in political science, the mooting process “was a source of motivation. It kept me alive in my last year.”
Helping the McGill team reach peak performance were three volunteer coaches, all practising lawyers from the McCarthy Tétrault law firm in Montréal. Aside from providing office space for weekly meetings and rehearsals, the coaches offered invaluable insight from a professional, rather than strictly academic, point of view. “They conveyed all the how-tos, whether it was how to draft a factum [or] how to use language, mannerisms and eye contact in the courtroom,” recalls Krane.
For team member Michael Lubetsky, who brought to mooting a solid background in speech and debate, the coaches’ feedback helped further hone his pleading style. “I learned to be more responsive,” says Lubetsky. “When a judge asks a question, getting defensive is not the right attitude. I learned to see questions as opportunities.” Evidently, Lubetsky learned his lesson well — he won the individual prize for best pleader, as well as best tandem pleader with his teammate Krane. While the stakes may be lower than in the professional world, there is little doubt among these mooters that at all stages, from tryout to contest, the mooting experience laid the groundwork for promising careers as lawyers and litigators.
McGill’s winning civil law mooting team
Photo: Claudio Calligaris
A brief stop at the bar
Mooting or no mooting, the transition between being a law student and a practising lawyer always involves a brief stop at the Bar. Fortunately for the university-weary, the Québec Bar School’s unique professional training program relies on a skills-based approach to prepare future lawyers for their active practice. Those looking to establish themselves as litigators will likely take special note of a few key areas of the Bar’s curriculum. Representation is among the nine training activities students must complete in order to be admissible for the Bar’s final evaluation. Near the end of the four-month program, students participate in a week of training and evaluation in the fundamentals of examination, cross-examination and pleading.The week begins with a four-hour introductory workshop. “By this time in the [Bar School] program, students are ready to apply the knowledge they have already accumulated throughout the training,” says Josée Turcotte, Director of the Bar’s Montréal centre. “They get a basic how-to class in representation.” While students may be mentally ready for the workshop, when it comes to actual technique in the courtroom, “some are really green,” says Monique Dupuis, a practising lawyer and teacher at the Bar School. Demonstrations and role-playing on such elements as language use, timing, appropriate questions, introduction of evidence and body language help bridge the gap between “knowing” at a theoretical level and “doing” in the courtroom.
A video camera is used throughout the training session to troubleshoot weak areas and highlight successes. “The most common error we see at Bar School,” says Dupuis, “is that students think that examination and cross-examination is pure improvisation.” She also notes that students “tend to ask leading questions when non-leading ones are required,” and fall into the trap of repeating their argument to the judge. “It’s not about repeating what was said.” Being selective about what points to put forth is an important component of a successful plea. Whatever the error, Dupuis explains, “You should always know what you are looking for. If you are prepared, you should already have the answer.”
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Did you know?
The trial advocacy skills seminar held annually in Sherbrooke, Québec, is based on a program founded by the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA). Headquartered in Louisville, Colorado, NITA is a not-for-profit continuing legal education institute for professors, judges and practising lawyers. It is committed to promoting and developing effective and ethical trial advocacy skills among legal professionals. For more information go to http://www.nita.org.
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