The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) – which has groomed generations of British thespians – is to launch a training programme for ‘tongue-tied lawyers’ to bring acting skills into the legal world.

RADA has put together a series of courses aimed at improving lawyers’ communication and presentation skills. Its business arm already lists among its clients City firms Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and CMS Cameron McKenna, together with the Inner Temple, which has used RADA to teach pupils on how to relax and improve delivery, and the College of Law, which used to run joint training courses for senior solicitors in communication and presentation skills.


Specialist tutors from RADA – experienced professional actors themselves – will use core theatrical skills with the goal of helping lawyers become more coherent communicators, and to project themselves with greater clarity and confidence.


The programme, which launches in the spring, includes a range of open courses, individualised in-house training and one-to-one coaching on personal presentation skills, ‘a voice of influence’, and effective communication and chairing skills. Tuition will be given either at RADA’s London base – where the likes of Lord Richard Attenborough and the late Sir John Mills learned their trade – or at firms’ offices.


‘A voice of influence’ applies tried and tested techniques from classical acting to help students make the most of their powers of communication, and includes specific instruction in how to project their voice without effort, how to develop its pitch, range, strength and flexibility, how to add interest to delivery and how to maintain ease of breathing.


Antonia Gillum-Webb, managing director of RADA Enterprises, explained that while the legal-specific courses were essentially the ones offered generally to the business community, they had been enhanced with the greater use of role play, as requested by legal clients. The actors will endeavour to give lawyers the chance to practise their skills in as realistic a way as possible, she said.


One legal client said it wanted its lawyers to develop greater empathy with clients, Ms Gillum-Webb added, because clients often find themselves in difficult situations when they seek legal advice.


Established in 2001, RADA Enterprises is the academy’s wholly-owned subsidiary commercial company, with a brief to create financial support for RADA’s core acting and technical teaching.


Link: www.radaenterprises.org