Mentoring and seeking higher court status

Do you wish to obtain rights of advocacy in the higher courts? Are you already a mentor, or could you be a mentor for aspiring solicitor-advocates? Nick Hine looks at the requirements

A three-stage training programme must be completed before the application for rights of advocacy in the higher courts can be made.

The stages are:

l Training and assessment in procedure, evidence and ethics in the higher civil and higher criminal courts;

l Training and assessment in advocacy skills, and;

l Experience in either civil or criminal proceedings, some of which may take place pre-admission, evidenced by a portfolio and signed off by a mentor.

The mentor's role

The third stage involves 12 months' relevant experience during which you will need to compile a portfolio detailing the advocacy experience you have gained.

During the 12-month period, you will be expected to use the support, guidance and experience that a mentor can provide to develop your advocacy skills to deliver advocacy at the appropriately higher level required for any higher court advocate from the outset.

The mentor provides this by support and from meetings to review progress, which should usually take place quarterly.

The mentor should also be available on the telephone or to meet at other times.

At the end of the 12 months, the mentor will need to certify your completed portfolio, whether the advocacy experience was completed conscientiously and to a satisfactory standard, and of course whether your portfolio accurately and properly reflects work done during the advocacy experience.

If the mentor is not in your firm, then the partner to whom you report will be of assistance.

He should of course be made aware of what you were doing, monitor the situation in-house and also confirm that the portfolio accurately reflects what you have been doing.

Therefore, the mentor's role is to assist with the development of your advocacy skills by supporting you from the start and to discuss specific cases, with a view to enhancing and developing skills, and improving your advocacy.

He will also be available to consider the necessary written material and should if possible attend at least one or two hearings where your advocacy performance can be assessed.

The key to this process is to have a good working relationship.

It will be your duty to keep the mentor informed of how matters are progressing, to provide written material such as the advices, pleadings and so on that you have drafted, and to let the mentor know well in advance of any hearings that he might be able to attend to observe you performing.

The portfolio

The purpose of the portfolio is to ensure that candidates consider and reflect upon their advocacy.

It also provides an opportunity to review performances and identify deficiencies.

It is also a record the Law Society can rely on in authorising the qualification.

What goes in the portfolio?

Advocacy is not purely about representing clients in courts and tribunals; it also involves drafting, advising, and preparation of cases.

Therefore, it is suggested that you list each case under a number of categories.

The rules state that you need to select no fewer than five occasions in relation to three or more separate cases when you have acted as an advocate or observed advocacy, and to write up the key issues of the case as chapters of the complete portfolio.

The balance of the portfolio will reflect your advocacy opportunities and must include one occasion when you acted as advocate and on at least one occasion when your advocacy was observed.

The rules state that it is appropriate to include observed advocacy in which the candidate and the advocate consider the advocacy issues in advance, which the candidate was present throughout the advocacy, and where he was subsequently able to discuss the outcome with the advocate or the mentor.

The first chapter of the portfolio should be completed in the first two months of the 12-month experience period, and the remaining chapters spread over the remaining months.

What goes in the chapters?

In compiling each chapter, the candidate should:

l Provide an outline of the case;

l Identify an issue for the advocate in the case;

l Identify the range of options available to the advocate in dealing with that issue, the option which was actually chosen and the reasons why;

l Outline the outcome of the case and how the course of action decided on previously affected the outcome, and;

l Reflect on the outcome and lessons that may emerge from it.

Therefore, the candidate should be prepared to discuss the issues with the mentor and to identify development needs and opportunities that may flow from the advocacy experience.

The candidate should include in the portfolio a note of the dates on which such discussions occurred and whether in person or by telephone, the outcome of the discussions and the conclusions which were drawn.

The candidate should retain a record of all discussions, e-mails, and any communication between him/herself and the mentor.

The rules state that the application can include any other material relevant to the application being made.

The mentor will be expected to write an assessment of the candidate's advocacy experience and the lessons drawn.

What of referees?

You will need to provide at least one referee, but preferably two, who can testify to your abilities as an advocate.

The rules point out that a referee who sits in a judicial capacity and before whom you have appeared as an advocate would be ideal; of course your mentor can be a referee if he has seen you in action.

What about CPD?

You will have to identify the training assessments that you have undertaken in procedure, evidence and ethics, and the rules state that it is helpful to include your CPD record for the previous three years.

Therefore, you will need to maintain a conscientious record.

There is also a regulation which states that all higher court advocates who gain the qualification under these regulations must undertake five hours of CPD relevant to their higher court practice in each of the five CPD years after qualification.

You will again have to maintain a record and this could be called for by the Law Society either on a random basis or in response to a complaint.

Finding a mentor

If you cannot find a mentor, the Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates (SAHCA) provides a mentor referral scheme, run by the author of this article, who is a mentor for three development route candidates.

Details of the association can be obtained from the SAHCA.

This is a useful group to join in any event, because it will inform you of what is happening in the solicitor-advocate side of the profession and also provides training and a source of peer support.

Should I be a mentor?

Yes, you should, particularly if you are a higher court advocate yourself, although you do not have to be.

Any solicitor or barrister with five years' post-qualification experience who is currently practising as an advocate in a relevant field can be a mentor.

But if you have got and use the higher courts qualification yourself, you are obviously ideally qualified to be a mentor.

Nick Hine is a partner at south-east firm Thomas Eggar.

E-mail him at: nick.hine@thomaseggar.com- For additional details of SAHCA and a membership application form, contact the administrator, Sandra Dawson, tel: 020 7837 0069.

E-mail your advocacy questions to: sandra@admin4u.

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