Advocacy

My final advocacy lesson today... I was assigned the task of defending the Order 14 application for summary judgment and making a mitigation plea. All in all, it went quite well. I have nothing to complain about. But whenever I go up to the lectern to present, I get a little jittery, and my throat will start to crackle and I start to speak very fast. Then I start to fumble over the big words.

The second time I presented, I tried to make a note of those errors and I spoke SLOWLY... but then I kept using the irritating word "and" to join up my sentences in place of "uh". That was painful too.

Even more painful was watching myself on videotape. They tape everyone and they bring us into a private room to view it. The lawyers then pinpoint our stylistic errors and advice on what to do. Boy, do I look gross. And Dao. And "kiam pa". URRGH. It's usual for people to get turned off when they see themselves on video. But they usually get used to it. I don't think I see myself in the mirror much, cos I was massively shocked when I saw that video. That couldn't have been me!!!

I remember that I retrieved an overpowering sense of awe from the NKF trial where Davinder Singh parried with Durei and won hands down. There was no fight there. I felt so inspired. Alas, the feeling did not last very long. I kept replaying the technical to dos and not to dos, completely forgetting that half of it required engaging the court, engaging in intellectual persuasion with the judge...

I need to get inspired again.