Over the holidays, I read a book titled “The Seven Lamps of Advocacy”, written by Sir Edward Abbott Parry, published in 1923.
It is an old and simple book but filled with profound wisdom and everlasting principles; I highly recommend it.
Inspired by the book, I would like to share my “Five Virtues of a Young Advocate”, or simply, 5 key qualities that I think all pupils and young lawyers must possess to excel in this profession.
I gathered these from lessons by seniors, observation of juniors, and of course, personal experience over my short years in practice; take it however you please.
1. The virtue of ambition
A junior associate or pupil must be ambitious. He/She must desire to achieve great things, financially or otherwise. He/She must not treat legal practice as a 9 – 5 job that he/she just wants to get by without stress, exhaustion, or disappointments. Instead, He/She must strive to be the Cristiano Ronaldo, Nicol David, or Roger Federer of law, not only in terms of having the ambition to be one of the greatest but the attitude and work ethic to achieve it, as these tops athletes do.
2. The virtue of responsibility
A junior associate or pupil must be responsible. He/She must take responsibility for his/her actions and every piece of work he/she produces. A junior or pupil cannot assume that just because he/she is not the final sieve before something is filed, or the person standing up in Court, they can make a mess and someone else will clean it, or make mistakes and someone else will take the blame. A junior or pupil must assume the role of a full-fledged lawyer who manages every brief and handles every client as if his/her own.
3. The virtue of hard work
A junior associate or pupil must be hardworking. The price for quality work and a reputation of excellence is the pain of labour. The smartest people I know, are often the most hardworking people I know. They would read every brief from cover to cover, consider every angle to their case, and research thoroughly before they write a letter or even open their mouth. As the book puts it: “Some advocates suffer thus every day the court sits, whilst others sit round and suffer envy.” Of course, you can choose a care-free, stress-free practice, but I’m afraid you will never surpass those who take initiative, who go the extra mile, and who work harder than you.
4. The virtue of sensitivity
A junior associate or pupil must be sensitive. By that, I mean being sensitive to the surroundings, whether it is the partner’s mood, the firm’s politics, the client’s expectations, the judge’s concerns, or the witness’ sentiment. A junior associate or pupil who is daft, who can’t empathise with how others are feeling, who has no sense of occasion, is bound to fail no matter how academically brilliant he/she is.
5. The virtue of fellowship
This is from the book, and I resonated with it so much that I thought it necessary to share it here, together with its opening paragraph:
“An advocate lacking in fellowship, careless of the sacred traditions of brotherhood which have kept the lamp of fellowship burning brightly for the English Bar through many centuries, a man who joins the Bar merely as a trade or business, and does not understand that it is also a professional community with public ideals, misses the heart of the thing, and he and his clients will suffer accordingly.”
It truly is very important to have friends in the Bar; not only that it would keep your mental health in check, help you last longer in this demanding profession, but also get you the assistance when you need it, and the guidance when you are lost. A junior associate or pupil must make friends, but of course, not at the expense of his/her principles or ethics.
Certainly, there are many more qualities that a young lawyer or pupil should have, but these are my Five Virtues of a Young Advocate.
I hope you found this useful, if not at least entertaining; I am a young lawyer myself, after all.