Jo Sidhu QC
In this episode, Jo Sidhu QC discusses the soft skills of advocacy, including aspects such as breathing, projection and controlling the mind to eliminate distractions and extraneous material.
Show notes
- Every advocate must go through the early stages of learning and making mistakes.
- It is important we take a formulaic approach to teaching advocacy, but we must not forget to teach the soft skills.
- A good advocate must follow the basic rules of advocacy but develop the ability to improvise upon them and show their own personality.
- The key to ensuring you can focus on your performance is preparation – fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
- Work on your breathing – you can use this to get your body into a relaxed, almost Zen-like state and eliminate the distractions.
- Breathing and posture is also key for projection and ensuring your voice can be heard throughout the courtroom. Do not mistake volume for power in the voice.
- Eloquence is important, but do not imitate someone else’s voice or accent.
- Seek feedback from colleagues and members of Chambers.
- Filter the information, distilling the papers to the absolute minimum.
- Jo explains his highlighter technique to organise his material and to ensure his eyes can find the required part of the papers without any faff.
- Jo explains how he takes notes while a witness is speaking, and how to make this as efficient and effective as possible.
- All human beings love stories – make the information as attractive and listenable as possible.
- The best advocates are emotionally intelligent – they are constantly picking up information from all those in the courtroom and are able to tailor their approach accordingly.
- What to do when you get a bad answer from a witness.
- How to let your personality come through in closing speeches.