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Course dates

Saturday 9 Dec 2023
10am-4pm | 1 day
Book now

Course overview

Good advocacy skills are both a necessity and a luxury for advocates. A necessity because case success largely depends on advocates’ advocating skills, and a luxury because good advocacy skills are a rare commodity – providing a real advantage for career progression, and for professional and client satisfaction.

This is one of the best courses I have ever had the pleasure of taking. From start to finish was an eye opener and made me realise that I have been looking at the practice of advocacy the wrong way. I came away feeling more confident, and eager to implement the new techniques&skills that the course had instilled in me. Fatos is an amazing lecturer. Passionate about wanting to ensure students conquer their fears and develop to their fullest potential. Definitely value for money!

Christine Ifediora

The course was excellent, and wonderful to have the opportunity to do the course at a relatively low cost.  It’s hard to find a similar course elsewhere. The teaching quality was world class and although it was 7 hours on a Saturday the time flew by due to the exceptionally great talents of the course leader. I’ve learnt many valuable things not just about the advocacy dimension but the meaning of justice in general. Excellent feedback and one on one sessions.

Trainee Solicitor, England, UK

This course is part of the rich portfolio of AIR courses in Advocacy and Public Speaking, with options for training at all levels, on Zoom, on campus and in clients’ offices. Please choose the right option for you on the booking page.

Who this course is for

This is an interactive advocacy training course delivered in small groups (max 8 participants), where you will have the opportunity to:

  • Deliver advocacy and receive personalised guidance and feedback.
  • Receive demonstrations on recommended ways of performance.
  • Discuss and exchange ideas with other participants and the tutor.

The course is designed for advocates – barristers, solicitors and those advocating in other contexts – to develop skills and knowledge for impactful advocacy in court, arbitration or other settings. However, the course is also suitable for anyone wishing to improve advocating skills.

The training focuses on skills and knowledge for the following elements of quality advocacy:

  • How to select and put together materials and evidence to enable the judge or other decision-makers to understand your case with ease.
  • How to gain and keep the attention of the judge.
  • How to present a case to judges, juries, bosses etc., so that they get a clear picture of your case.
  • How to deliver your advocacy without depending on notes or other written materials.
  • How to minimise the effect of the numerous biases affecting decision-makers.
  • How your personality affects case outcomes and how to minimise any undesired impact.
  • How the personality of the judge/decision-maker affects case outcomes, and how to minimise any negative impact.
  • How to close a case in a captivating way.
  • How to build confidence for advocacy.

If these skills and knowledge are of interest to you, and the small group interactive format is suitable for you – then this course is for you. These skills are transferable to a range of areas, including meetings and public speaking. Participants of this course have included professionals from the legal sector (e.g. barristers, solicitors, international lawyers); from the charity sector (e.g. education, justice); government (e.g. civil servants) and students (e.g. law and Bar students).

By taking this course you will benefit from advocacy training as taught at the English Bar and practised in English courts, enhanced in line with findings from psychology and communication sciences. In addition, the training incorporates advocacy practices from other countries, including the US.

Join us for this interactive one-day training course on the beautiful art of advocacy – a branch of the fascinating science of communication.

Why investing in advocacy is important

Advocacy skills are a primary tool for advocates and a prerequisite to being a good advocate. Lack of advocacy skills presents serious risks, and good advocacy skills present real advantages for advocates and their clients. For example, good advocacy skills can significantly improve career progression and professional satisfaction.

There is a great need for advocates with good advocacy skills – good advocacy is a rare commodity and case outcomes depend largely on advocates’ skills.

There is also a real need for advocacy training which incorporates relevant findings from psychology – a gap this programme is designed to fill. Understanding human behaviour, such as the decision-makers' biases, is crucial for successful advocacy.

How to become a good advocate

To become a good advocate one needs to: gain skills for creating good content and for effective delivery at an advanced level; understand human mind processes relevant to decision making; have a non-superficial understanding of origins of behaviour; know about biases; know how to protect from own biases and biases of the judge or other decision maker; know how to protect from key relevant misconceptions such as those on memory, lie detention, and reliability of witnesses and evidence; know about the impact of mass-persuasion (e.g. media, service design, movies) including on oneself and judges; understand the development of the legal system; know the primary purposes of the legal system; understand the relationship between politics and law.

Further information

Discounts, location, and more dates

We offer several discounts, as well as sponsorship. Format is date-specific – this course (and other AIR courses) are available:

  • On campus, 10 minutes from central London.
  • Via a digital platform such as Zoom.
  • At your offices.

Additional dates are also available. Please visit the booking page for more information. The online training with live tutoring has the added benefit of improving skills for ‘digital’ participation.

Additional features of this training

This training course is directed by a barrister who is also a public speaking expert with a background in psychology, cognitive sciences, and genetics and with over 12 years of experience teaching advocacy, public speaking and decision-making.

Exceptional value: 100% of AIR Courses income, beyond operational expenses, is used towards education and research. This enables us to offer our training at an exceptional value - making this knowledge accessible. Find out more about AIR. 

Our Psychology department is highly acclaimed: it is rated No 1 in the UK for Social Mobility and has a high QS ranking for academic reputation and citations.

Follow-up training options

If you'd like to develop your skills further, we offer a range of other advocacy and public speaking courses to meet your needs. We also offer private tuition in Public Speaking and Presenting, and Advocacy. Please email air@gold.ac.uk for more private and group booking options.

Fees

£275

Goldsmiths offers a 15% concession rate on short courses to Lewisham Local cardholders, Students and Goldsmiths Alumni. Please email shortcourses@gold.ac.uk for further information.

Booking information

Please note our short courses sell out quickly, so early booking is advisable.

Saturday 9 Dec 2023
10am-4pm | 1 day
Book now

Location

Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross Campus

Senate House, Bloomsbury, London

 

Enquiries

Find out more about all of the AIR courses available to you.

For all enquiries, and to be regularly updated on upcoming AIR courses, please email: air (@gold.ac.uk). For anything urgent, or if emailing is not a good option for you, you can also call us via WhatsApp or phone on +44 (0)7908 566 949.

You can also follow us on social media:

Short courses mailing list: for information about our upcoming short courses please sign up to our mailing list.

Please note our short courses sell out quickly, so early booking is advisable.

Group bookings

To book this course for a group, please email us at air@gold.ac.uk, The price for group bookings starts at £1,365 accommodating up to 8 people.

Refund policy

The refund policy for each course can be found on the booking page. 

Enquiries

For all enquiries, and to be regularly updated on upcoming AIR courses, please email air@gold.ac.uk. For anything urgent, or if emailing is not a good option for you, you can also call us via WhatsApp or phone on +44 (0)7908 566 949.

For updates and promotions, please follow us on social media:

Disability support

We are committed to providing reasonable teaching adjustments for students with disabilities that may impact on their learning experience. If you require adjustments, please complete the relevant section on the booking form and also contact us at shortcourses@gold.ac.uk so we can respond to your requests as soon as possible.

Tutor information


Fatos Selita

This course is directed by Fatos Selita, an English Barrister and a New York State Attorney with training in psychology, human behaviour (behavioural genetics) and other fields. He has taught communication (e.g., public speaking, advocacy, speech writing, persuasion, the psychology of decision-making) for over 12 years, including from 2014 at Goldsmiths.

He has experience training professionals from a range of fields including lawyers, judges, diplomats and doctors. Fatos has taught in several universities internationally. He has a number of research publications and is co-author of Oedipus Rex in the Genomic Era: Human Behaviour, Law and Society.

 

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