UPDATE: This seminar occurred in the past, and the seminar materials are now available.
• LESA Library subscribers can already access course materials through the LESA Library.
• You can purchase the seminar on demand to stream videos of speaker presentations and download course materials as PDFs.
• Alternatively you can purchase course materials a la carte (search first trial).
• You can also view the list of upcoming seminars to discover live programs that are available now.
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Running Your First Trial is coming up soon:
Edmonton – January 21 and Calgary – February 4.
This seminar has a lot to offer junior practitioners. Here’s what seminar chair Vivian Stevenson QC has to say about it.
Why will Running Your First Trial be valuable to practitioners? What will they gain?
“The idea is to give people who haven’t had the opportunity to appear in court some practical advice to assist them in preparing for that and to help them with all the anxiety and nerves you have when you’re going to do something you’re not used to doing”
“There will be some theoretical, legal advice … but the idea is to be practical. That’s why we’ve got a panel of people who have experience running trials. Civil trials are becoming more and more rare, so the opportunity that a lot of more senior lawyers got to run a lot of trials when they were juniors doesn’t happen now. [Junior lawyers now] also don’t have as many opportunities to go and sit in trials. … I wanted people [on the panel] who could give good advice about running trials and I wanted to have one criminal lawyer on the panel because they run more trials than anybody. … The seminar is geared towards civil trials, not criminal trials, but we do have two very experienced criminal practitioners.” [Mona Duckett QC is speaking in Edmonton, and P. Kelly Dawson is speaking in Calgary.]
“The idea is to try and give attendees some basics so that when they find out they have to run their first trial … they will sort of know how to approach it.”
What do you think will be the main takeaways for participants?
“We want to give them some tools to use: checklists, or objectives, or things to think about. Things they can go back to and say, ‘Have I done this, have I done that?’ to provide them with some sort of frame work … or outline they can go back to and say, ‘What should I do next? What haven’t I done?’”
Can you give us a sneak preview about the “Overview” topic you’ll be discussing at the seminar? What will be particularly useful or interesting about it?
“I’ll be talking about the importance of having a theory of the case, and how the idea is to carry that idea through from the beginning to the end, always coming back to [the question], ‘What am I trying to prove?’”
“It’s about the importance of understanding where you want to go so that you know how to get there.”
Is there anything else you’d like to add about the seminar?
“The point of this is not to have someone sit and lecture at attendees as much as it is to provide them with things to think about and an opportunity to ask questions.”
“[The panel includes] some of the top litigators in the province. These are really, really experienced people but also very practical people. We want people to come with questions and be prepared to engage with the panel. … There’s no such thing as a stupid question.”
So there you have it.
If you haven’t yet secured your spot in the seminar, don’t delay and register online now. Attend in Edmonton or Calgary.
