Lawyers take to the stage to better skills in communication

'Don't put your lawyer on the stage, Mrs Worthington' may now be a thing of the past after the College of Law joined forces with the Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts (RADA) to offer training courses in voice projection and communication skills for senior lawyers.

The courses will consist of in-house training by experienced tutors in voice and movement.

Lady Ann Samuel, the managing director of RADA Enterprises, said: 'In business, people make a very quick judgement of you and only 7% of the communication is verbal.'Course organiser David Jabbari, one-time training consultant at City law firm Bird & Bird and now the College's director of professional development, said: 'Over the years, I noticed how lawyers were increasingly taking presentation skills seriously so we teamed up with RADA to offer the complete training package.'I do not think that lawyers on the whole are that bad at presenting themselves but that doesn't mean they can't be better.'See Press Round-up, page 12Andrew Towler