Advocacy Training

The Inns of Court College of Advocacy (ICCA) provides high quality advocacy training materials for used in Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Please scroll down the page for links to ICCA advocacy materials.

 

What is formal Advocacy Training?

Formal advocacy training is a relatively recent discipline: for many years it was assumed that advocacy skills could be learnt by example and observation, rather than being taught as a formal discipline.

However, formal advocacy training has now been introduced as a compulsory element during the key stages of training to become a barrister. At each of the stages involving advocacy training as a compulsory element, advocacy trainers employ the Hampel method for feedback. In addition, practising barristers will often undertake additional training in order to improve their advocacy skills and to prepare themselves for specialist areas of practice.

For the standards of advocacy expected of barristers, please see the section on What is Advocacy?

 

What are the various stages of advocacy training for barristers?

There are currently four stages of training for the Bar and the first three include advocacy training as a compulsory element:

  1. Vocational Stage – to read more about this please see the section on How to become a barrister (coming soon) and click here for more information about the ICCA Bar Course.
  2. Pupillage Advocacy Course
  3. New Practitioner Programme (NPP)
  4. Established Practitioner Programme (EPP)

The BSB do not prescribe advocacy training at the EPP stage, but active consideration is being given by the profession to introduce a compulsory advocacy training requirement for those of 4-6 years’ Call.

 

South Eastern Circuit Bar Mess Foundation Advanced International Advocacy Course at Keble College, Oxford

This course is for practitioners between 3 and 7 years’ Call. Each of the Inns offers scholarships every year. The aim of this course is to encourage and develop the ‘highest standards of advocacy amongst practitioners in London and the South East. The course is the most demanding and intensive of any advocacy course in the UK. Further details are available on the South Eastern Circuit’s website.

What is Advocacy?

The specialist skill of written and oral advocacy, together with the standards of advocacy expected of barristers.

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Expert Advocacy Guidance from Women in Law

Expert guidance in various aspects of advocacy from leading women judges and barristers who have each contributed to the development of the law and practice of advocacy.

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Advocacy & The Vulnerable – Crime

This A&V course for criminal practitioners is designed to ensure that all advocates, when dealing with children or vulnerable witnesses, understand the key principles behind the approach to, and questioning of, vulnerable people in the justice system.

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Advocacy for children in conflict with the Law

For practitioners who prosecute or defend children & young people in the criminal justice system, the ICCA has developed a national course tackling some of the most challenging areas of advocacy in this field.

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Trauma-Informed Advocacy

Developed over a number of years in recognition of the wealth of rich research demonstrating how trauma impacts a person’s ability to function and navigate difficult situations, this course is designed to help advocates adapt their practice where there are elements of trauma in a case.

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The Hampel Method

The systematic six-stage advocacy training method devised by Professor George Hampel QC of the Australian Bar.

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Principles for Remote Advocacy

This guide concentrates on the way in which advocates can most efficiently deploy their professional skills in communication and persuasion in an online working environment.

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Advocacy & The Vulnerable – Family

Following on from the success of the Criminal Advocacy and the Vulnerable Course, the ICCA and the FLBA have collaborated on a bespoke course for the Family Bar, adjusted to represent proceedings in the family court.

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Expert Evidence

An introduction to or handy refresher of the principles that underlie the use of expert evidence. Intended to be generic, practical and relevant to advocates working in any court or tribunal in England and Wales.

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International Advocacy

The ICCA delivers a range of advocacy training to advocates in jurisdictions overseas, responding to invitations extended by local Bar associations, law societies and other professional organisations.

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