News & Events

Advocacy Skills Workshop Success

Arnot Manderson Advocates’ Inaugural Training Workshop in Advocacy Skills, in association with the Scottish Young Lawyers Association.

On 14 November, 6 members of Arnot Manderson put 37 solicitors through their paces in a range of Advocacy Skills exercises. The day long course took place in the Radisson Blu Hotel, not far from Parliament House in Edinburgh’s High Street. This initiative was developed in conjunction with the Scottish Young Lawyers Association, whose excellent publicity attracted a wide group drawn from across Scotland. In addition to a very welcome 5 hours’ CPD, the participants gained in the words of one “an excellent overview of a toolkit of advocacy pointers [and the] opportunity to try out this tool kit in a safe learning environment under excellent instructors.”

The event was led by Kenneth Campbell QC, a former Director of Training & Education at the Faculty of Advocates, who was assisted by Gerald F Hanretty QC, Shona Haldane QC, Kate Dowdalls, Paul Davies, Eric Robertson, Hugh Olson, Neil Mackenzie and Manus Blessing. All are members of Arnot Manderson Advocates and are experienced instructors on the Faculty’s skills training programme. The workshop involved a series of small group practical sessions, during which participants performed examination, cross examination and closing submissions, and received structured feedback from instructors aimed at helping improve their performance. “It was very useful to have constructive criticism from experts” commented one participant, with another adding “[There were] lots of points raised that I never thought about, or knew before.”

Eric Robertson, Advocate, Arnot Manderson’s Stable Director commented:

This event was carefully designed to give participants a more reflective approach to preparation and presentation of oral advocacy. From the participants’ positive responses and the evident progress throughout the day, it is clear that the trainers achieved notable success in this aim. It is a mark of the strength and depth in Arnot Manderson that we are able to draw on a number of experienced advocates from a range of areas of practice to provide training. We are grateful to the SYLA for their support and publicity.

This was a valuable addition to our training programme and looks set to become an annual fixture.

Arnot Manderson Advocates is an accredited Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) Training Provider and regularly runs CPD and Training Events including Conferences and Seminars on a variety of topics such as Criminal Law, Personal Injury Law, Public Inquiries and FAI’s, Commercial Disputes, Professional and Medical Negligence and Family Law.

For information on future Arnot Manderson Events or to discuss your training needs please contact Andrew Sutherland on 0131 260 5824 or andrewsutherland@amadvocates.co.uk.