The young lawyer weekend hosted by InvestIn was a truly once in a lifetime experience and an aspiring lawyer. The event took place in a seminar hall in University College London, the event began with an ice breaker, discussional task around the 1991 Jaffa cake case. It was light hearted advocacy whereby the room was split in half as we became prosecution and defense over if the Jaffa cake treat was a cake or biscuit. The cakes won, as they did in the actual case, before we moved on to a mock trial criminal law case concerning the prosecuted Stanley Bates on charges of murder. The next few hours were intense as we differed through evidence of text messages and learned about chief-in and cross examining question styles taught by a top criminal barrister Molly Dyas. We were delighted to watch an in person witness testimonial from Stanley Bates' mistress. It was incredible to watch and a treasured experience for many who attended. After examining all evidence and questioning available we took part in some oral advocacy resulting in the defense of Stanley Bates winning the case as the planted a seed of doubt in the judges mind surrounding the potentiometer influence mr bates’ mistress could’ve had.
The second half of the day was spent looking through a human rights court case (once again a mock trial for oral advocacy) . This session was run by Adetokunbo Hussain, human rights lawyer from the international crime court. He took us through a refugee deportation case, providing us with bundles including the relevant human rights that the refugee was entitled to in this case. We learned about the difference between absolute and qualified. As a group in this session we decided what was the most accurate decision for the refugee in question. Once again we split in two as a group, taking part in oral advocacy once again in place of the refugee’s defense and the Home Secretary as prosecution. The verdict was that we were to be deported under diplomatic reassurances between the UK and his homeland. This was insightful and a priceless experience for any aspiring lawyer. This experience was the young lawyer weekend however there is a summer experience that takes place over longer than just one day. Due to the longevity of the summer experience those attending will delve into more areas than just human rights and criminal broadening their experience and legal knowledge as the future generation of lawyers.
