Career Options
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Once they have completed the introductory workshop, students spend the remainder of the training week applying their skills in a series of mock trial exercises. First, students must choose either to examine and cross-examine or to plead a case that they have selected earlier in the training program. The case may be a civil matter, criminal matter, or work-related accident. By the time students enter the representation exercises, they will have already spent many hours researching, preparing their argument and compiling evidence. The challenge now is to transform their written arguments into compelling oratory that will bring their case to life in the courtroom. Throughout the enactments, teachers critique and evaluate student performance, offering specific and constructive feedback.
The focus is on learning and improving the students’ ability to combine both the theory and practice of law. When Dupuis says that “the Bar School’s training includes all the skills that have to do with being a lawyer,” she’s talking about exactly this process of building a case from start to finish. “At Bar school,” says Dupuis, “students get their bearings, from meeting the client to the judgement.” For some students, this small taste of real-life lawyering will be just the nibble they need to whet their appetite for a career in litigation.
Smooth litigator
Lawyers who have already found their niche in the courtroom can take their abilities to the next level at the annual trial advocacy skills seminar in Sherbrooke, Québec. Every summer, a handful of seasoned legal professionals such as Québec Court Judge Michael Sheehan, Supreme Court Justice Marie Deschamps and trial counsel Alan Lenczner are joined by 48 participants for some locked-in litigation training at the seminar. For the past 25 years, the seven-day program has helped practising lawyers put the polish on their courtroom technique. “It’s a course that transforms people professionally,” says Judge Sheehan, who has been involved with the seminar since its inception and is one of its permanent instructors.At the seminar, which is conducted under the auspices of the Québec Bar, students take part in a dynamic curriculum that emphasizes “learning by doing.” Divided into small groups of eight and guided by coaches like Monique Dupuis, who has taken part in this capacity since 2002, participants work hard to break old habits and integrate new methods. “They are called upon to do exercises continuously,” Sheehan explains. Individual performance is critiqued by the six coaches who float between groups, as well as by participating members of the judiciary, who visit groups throughout the week. “We don’t fool around,” emphasizes Sheehan. “This is serious business.”
If the personalized feedback and coaching, complete with video-taping and review, is one huge draw for litigators, a second is the twice-daily demonstrations by “some of the best lawyers we can get,” says Sheehan. Participants watch the experts in action, something they would rarely have the opportunity to do in their day-to-day professional lives. Demonstrators like Toronto-based litigator Alan Lenczner, renowned in the legal world for his involvement in a number of high-profile cases, have frequently lent their expertise to the seminar. What’s more, Sheehan notes, “He insists on speaking in French!” Given the calibre of legal professionals attending and the jam-packed training schedule, it’s little wonder that the program has a three-year waiting list — just enough time for recent law graduates to accumulate the two to three years of experience required to participate.
Judge Michael Sheehan
Photo: La Presse
The seminar’s rigorous six-day training culminates in a unique trial event on the seventh day. Twelve mock trials, with two defence and two plaintive lawyers apiece and presided over by a professional judge, run simultaneously in separate courtrooms of the Palais de Justice in Sherbrooke. In all 12 courts, participants argue the same gripping case, involving the violent death of a doctor, an insurance policy and a widow out for her due. The question is: was it an accident or a disguised suicide? To make the trial event more realistic, the seminar recruits members of the public to serve as witnesses and jury members. Each witness receives documentation in advance that allows them to rehearse for their 10–15 minutes of fame in the hot seat.
For the students, who have prepared for the case as earnestly as for any real trial and who have spent the past six days refining their courtroom prowess, this is the moment to bring it all together in a well-executed performance. If Judge Sheehan and his seasoned colleagues have anything to say about it, you can be sure that by the end of the training, students will have what it takes to deliver the goods.
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Inside track
One of the problems that young lawyers face today, according to Québec Court Judge Michael Sheehan, is that courtroom experience is more and more difficult to acquire. “The costs of litigation are so high that there are fewer and fewer trials; there is an access problem.” That said, Sheehan is quick to add that “young lawyers are still much better prepared than in my day.” His advice for all novice lawyers: “Never act as an amateur when you’re a professional.”
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