Interview

As some may remember from a previous post I applied to a certain MC firm for a summer placement. Well I have received an email inviting me to attend an interview.

I know that there will be those out there that are shaking their heads over this betrayal of my quest carrying on, but I am feeling quite proud having got this far in what is a massively competitive process.

I shall of course let you all know how it went in January after the interview. All the best,
BoB.

A Merry Christmas one and all.

Hi everyone. I seem to be starting most of my posts with these words but again I apologise for the lack of entries recently. There is not much of a reason for this other than a little bit of laziness coupled with working on other things. I am at this moment working on a formative coursework for contract law. This is particularly important as the contract law assessment for my second year will be 100% coursework so this will give me a good indication.

Two small points:
You may have noticed that I have put Christmas at the top of this post which is entirely intentional. It annoys me no end that it is now in some areas being called 'wintermass' or 'frost festival' or whatever other nonsense that somebody makes up because someone, somewhere, might be offended. Although of course with the Law as it is it's not really that surprising when offending people is quickly becoming a criminal act. So I repeat Merry Christmas everybody.

Secondly I went busking yesterday for 3 and 1/2 hours in the city and made £45 which was a nice little bonus before Christmas. Might do it again tomorrow.

Hope everyone has a good time over the Christmas period and I will see you all again in the New Year.

Semi Final Success

The mooting competition continues for BoB as last night my learned friend and I were victorious in the semi final. It was very close but we won by the huge margin of one point!

I have learnt that I need to work a bit more on my opening, and to not use colloquial English, such as TV rather than television. But these are all good points which I can work on for the final next year, which will be in front of a judge and in gowns, which will be great fun, although nerve racking.

In other news I attended court and was able to get in front if the DJ three times, although everything was sorted outside so most of the time all I had to do was nod at the right time and smile sweetly.

Well that is a very quick round up of the past couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to Christmas, but will be doing work over the holiday, reading cases, a little bit of catching up and refreshing myself of what I have learnt so far.

I am still here.

Sorry that I have not updated my blog for a while, but unfortunately I have been really busy. I do intend to do a long post soon so that everyone can catch up on my progress. I have been doing more advocacy work at the local court, and have been working hard on my degree, but not as hard as I would have liked.

I seem to have been distracted this year, and slightly taken my eye off the ball. I think that BoB needs a good holiday, and then come back in the new year raring to go.

In other news the semi-final of this years mooting competition is next Thursday, so lots of work towards that. I promise I shall return very soon,
BoB.

Result!!

Very quick post, but just thought that I would let everybody know that my partner and I are through to the semi-finals of the mooting competition which will be in front of a Barrister from a local chambers. I will post more details soon, but Tort Law seminar work awaits.

Upping the stakes!!!

My learned friends for the respondents in the quarter final of the moots are good friends, and are a boyfriend and girlfriend team. The boyfriend has been trying to put the pressure on, all in a good hearted way, but he has stated that "I am going to be drinking a celebratory pint after the moot".

To add to this, the recent Tort lecture concerned the exact area of the moot (psychiatric harm and bystanders), and sat there listening it was quite obvious that the law was completely against us. This was pointed out to us with much glee by said learned friend.

Now I would imagine most of the few loyal readers of this blog out there will be thinking "poor old BoB, not a chance in hell". But you would be wrong, and I am massively happy that he is cock sure. Because it shows me that he has looked only to the obvious, and the point upon which I am arguing has not even entered his radar, so should completely broadside him. It's there in the cases we have been given, so it only requires close reading, but such are the dangers when the case law is so obviously in your favour.

The proof will obviously be in the pudding when we get to the moot, but I am really up for this and looking forward to prove the old adage that "pride comes before a fall".

Watch this space, all the best to everyone, BoB.

Assessed or not, that is the question?

As it is the time of year that the new pupillage handbook comes out (in a rather fetching shade of blue this year), BoB's mind has turned to the question of mini-pupillage's.

Having scoured the pages of the Chambers in London which I am interested in, I found myself pondering whether or not it is wise to complete an assessed mini-pupillage? There are pros and cons to either answer.

Pros:

• Chambers get to see what your abilities are, not just that you are good at being your supervisor's shadow and being polite and friendly;
• It may help the selection process for pupillage, as they will already know something about your abilities;
• Some chambers will let you skip the first round interview if you perform well;
• It allows chambers to give you some real constructive feedback on your chances rather than "everyone thought you were very nice"!!

Cons:

• Mess up the assessment and you have little or no chance of getting pupillage at that chambers, even if there are further assessments in the pupillage interviews;
• You may end up being so worried and stressed, that you spend all week concentrating on the test, and don't show the members of chambers your friendly side and allow them to make the "very nice" comment;
• You may not actually enjoy the week, so you won't want to apply there anyway.

If anyone has any views on this, especially those that have maybe completed one or have secured pupillage, they will be very welcome.