A fascinating and incredibly well put together programme of events at Nottingham University! There were some late nights (lectures until 11.30pm), and some early-ish mornings (6am in order to beat the queue for breakfast), but all in all a fantastic event. Plus, there was a bonus of a blanket of snow covering the city!
I had a practise interview: it went quite well, forced me to think on my feet - I was asked whether legal professionals should be able to report each other for incompetence. So, let's consider it: what do they mean by incompetence? Does it mean that you lose too many cases? Or does it mean that you come into work ill one day, and say entirely the wrong thing in court? The main issue with it, I thought, was that beginning a culture of reporting other professionals may have some major negative impacts upon the legal profession. To a certain extent, any workplace needs to have a foundation of trust for professionals to work with one another, though it can equally be said that any legal professional needs to be competent in order to represent their clients effectively. Perhaps the best option would not to have barristers and solicitors reporting one another, but for clients to be able to do so if they believe they were not represented in the best possible fashion. This would mean that the client could make the judgement, and lawyers would not have to watch their back against potentially power-hungry colleagues who want their job.
Beyond the interview, there were many other legal questions that we had to ask ourselves. We considered euthanasia, lowering the drinking age, and many more specific cases where we had to decide upon sentencing or guilt. Amongst hilarious lectures from barristers, focussed talks from Solicitors, and an informative insight from a Detective Inspector, we heard a lecture from Ben Wilson, a representative from the Supreme Court, and it showed a whole new line of work that I may consider in the future - I quite like the sound of Lady Justice Woolnough, don't you?
