the times | Thursday May 26 2022 59
Student Law
Commercial chambers and law firms
are increasingly keen to boost diversity
programmes by adding mentoring
schemes aimed at those from back-
grounds that are traditionally less likely
to enter the legal profession.
The latest effort involves five barris-
ters’ chambers — Cornerstone, Field
Court, Francis Taylor Building, Kings
and Landmark — who with the Plan-
ning and Environmental Bar Associa-
tion have launched a scheme in plan-
ning, property and public law.
Robin Green, a barrister at Corner-
stone, was the driving force behind the
arrangement. There were 81 applicants
for the first year and about 60 were ac-
cepted. Between five and 18 mentees
were placed across the chambers in Oc-
tober, and the scheme ends next month.
The programme involves between
three and five one-to-one meetings
with a mentor, a workshop on applica-
tions for pupillage and a social event.
“We hope that the scheme will help
talented individuals who might not
think the Bar is for them to understand
what the Bar has to offer and how to be-
come a barrister, while assisting in the
application process,” Green says. Fal-
con Chambers, a property set, will join
the scheme when applications open
again for a 2022-23 intake.
One of five mentees at Field Court
Chambers is Anais Sosson, 28, from
Belgium, who moved to the UK to
study. After a law degree from Brighton
University in 2020, Sosson had a place
on the Bar practice course including a
master’s at BPP University between
2020 and 2022.
Sosson has been mentored by Lauren
Suding, an employment, court of pro-
tection and family law specialist barris-
ter. “My main objective for this mentor-
Students of courtroom advocacy could
not have asked for a more instructive
spring.
In London all eyes have been on the
Wagatha Christie trial, which has
pitched the Oxbridge don tutorial style
of Hugh Tomlinson QC against the
flash tan of the Bar’s best-known non-
silk, David Sherborne.
Across the Atlantic, Hollywood’s fin-
est are screening Depp Defamation II,
Johnny Depp’s claim against his ex-wife
Amber Heard, a sequel to an earlier
London fixture against the publishers
of The Sun newspaper that went against
the man who veers between playing
cartoon pirates and gonzo journalists.
But to pick up any pointers in the
London show, students had to queue at
the Royal Courts of Justice for the live
show. For while the two gigs have much
in common — not least that they are
both styled as the libel trial of the
century so far — Depp’s claim against
Heard is being broadcast live. Every gri-
mace and glare made by claimant and
respondent can be observed and scruti-
nised by viewers around the world.
For student advocates there is the
bonus of being able to see the trial law-
yers in action. And while many but-
toned-up UK advocates are a bit sniffy
about their US counterparts, libel law-
yers are impressed.
“I would highly recommend watch-
ing the cross-examination of Amber
Heard by Camille Vasquez, the attorney
for Johnny Depp,” says Christina Mi-
chalos QC, a media law specialist at 5RB
Chambers. Michalos describes Vas-
quez’s technique in the courtroom inMentoring scheme
places are hot property
Linda Tsang ship was to rebuild my confidence after
feeling removed from the legal sector as
a result of the [coronavirus] pandemic,”
Sosson says. “The in-person sessions
pushed me out of my comfort zone and
I now feel more assured going into the
next stages of my legal career.”
Mentoring included reviews of her
CV, covering letters, mini-pupillage and
pupillage applications, plus advice on
mooting, public speaking, debating and
networking. “The most useful experi-
ence focused on mock pupillage inter-
view-style sessions,” she says. “I re-
ceived extensive feedback, not only as
to the content of my answers but also as
to the structure and the speaking style
of them, which was essential for me to
know how to better my responses and
my advocacy skills.”
Sosson is due to be called to the Bar in
July and is applying for pupillage and
paralegal roles at the planning Bar.
One of the 18 mentees at Corner-
stone is Uzair Ali, 23, who is in his final
year of a law degree at the the Univers-
ity of Law in Manchester. He has en-
rolled on the Bar course and was re-
cently awarded a Cassel scholarship by
Lincoln’s Inn.
Ali didn’t think his scheme applica-
tion would be successful. “To my pleas-
ant surprise I was assigned Peggy Etie-
bet as a mentor,” he says. Etiebet spe-
cialises in social housing law.
“It was extremely reassuring to hear
of her personal experiences and how
the Bar is becoming more diverse
through the passage of time,” Ali says.
“Above all, this has been my most
useful experience; having a mentor
who is transparent and providing a
sense of a realistic perspective to moti-
vate me and reassure me that there is no
blueprint for what a barrister should
look or act like, and that we ultimately
are the future to the profession.”Virginia as “really first class —
clear, methodical, well structured”. Vas-
quez “put the key points extremely ef-
fectively. It’s a good lesson in how a very
impressive cross-examination does not
need Rumpole of the Bailey theatrics.”
And Michalos says that the re-exam-
ination is also worth watching — not
least to show the difficulties lawyers
can get into when you can’t ask leadingFront-row seat for top advocacy in action
questions. “At one point the judge said
to the re-examining lawyer, ‘What if
anything is not a cure-all’ — a repri-
mand meaning that just adding those
words to the start of question does not
turn a leading question into a non-lead-
ing one,” she says.
“It’s unsurprising that the classic
teaching line for baby advocates on re-
examination is don’t do it.”
Jon Oakley, a partner at the London
law firm Simkins, says that there is
some validity to the stereotypical im-
age of top-drawer US advocates. “US
trial lawyers are characterised
as being more emotive,
sometimes theatrical,
generally louder and
directly confronta-
tional compared to
their more sub-
dued, understated
and conservative
English counter-
parts,” he says,
adding that the
“near constant flow
of objections that
can typify US pro-
ceedings is a much less
frequent phenomenon in
the UK, where adversarial advo-
cacy is usually more restrained”.
Imran Khodabocus at the Family Law
Company says the Depp-Heard case
has advocacy lessons that go beyond the
glitz of a Hollywood defamation claim.
“For example, the need for good public
speaking skills and the ability to draw
reasonable, logical conclusions or as-
sumptions from limited information,”he says. “These cases highlight the im-
portance of empathy and understand-
ing of your client’s needs. In this case
there is clearly a lot of trauma and diffi-
cult topics — such as domestic abuse —
which as a lawyer, particularly in family
law, you need to be able to deal with.”
Students eyeing up a career in media
law and potentially dual-qualification
should pay attention to the procedural
similarities and differences.
The most obvious difference is that
juries still hear defamation cases in
most US states, whereas the Defama-
tion Act 2013 more or less abolished
them in England. Nonetheless, the core
structure of such trials on both sides of
the Atlantic is the same. Yet, Michalos
says, they are different in a way that
mirrors the differences between Amer-
ican gridiron and Association Football.
“In the US there is a lot more stop-
start,” she says. “This is because of the
objection and sidebar process where
lawyers approach the judge’s bench to
argue points of objection out of earshot
of the jury.
“Objections to questions and legal
arguments do take place here but there
is no approaching the judge’s bench.
“There is no convention of automatic
objection by rote,” adds Michalos, re-
ferring to the American obsession with
picking up on “speculation”, “asked and
answered” (repetition, in other words),
and “lack of foundation”. Such objec-
tions do take place in UK courtrooms,
“but they are far less formulaic, less fre-
quent and dealt with swiftly by the
judge. So that tends to be less disruptive
to the flow of a trial here.”Camille Vasquez and Johnny Depp. Right: Amber HeardCatherine Baksi on
what students can
learn from the
big-name libel cases on
both sides of the Pond
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