Update

So much for my posts on the Death Penalty - I'm not the most reliable of bloggers, am I?

A little update on my life- the BVC is still a magnificent waste of time and money, ICSL practically had to prise their second cheque out of my hands. Upcoming assessments have my nerves all a-twitter.

I'm really disappointed with the Advocacy Training in the BVC. The major skill of a Barrister is surely advocacy, written and oral. I expected much more than a weekly session late-September to February. If assessments were at the end of the year, that would be another 3 months advocacy training. If you're going to make the course a year long, then make it worthwhile.

In other news Boy went ring shopping and when he presented me with a suitably sparkly one, well - it would have been rude to say no, wouldn't it?

I'm so looking forward to all the cake-tasting.

FRU

I'm still taking every possible opportunity to rant and rave about how much the BVC is poor value for money, and I hate the way it's organised. I'm still by no means doing enough work- I think it's definitely a case of getting as much as you put in this year. With upcoming assessments, I'm not feeling too confident.

I am looking forward to taking on my first FRU case however, I've eventually managed to get all my training bits and bobs done - training day, check; passed the test, check; and visit to the Employment Tribunal, check! Now it's just a case of actually getting on with a case - which given the upcoming assessments may be tricky.

I may spend some of Christmas looking at training contract applications. I'm horribly intimidated by several of my more accomplished and more diligent colleagues on the BVC.

My advocacy seems to be improving however, to end on a positive note.

Made me laugh on a bleak Monday morning-

I googled 'ICSL' and 'FRU' and my own blog came up as the third link - not what I was expecting! And yes, I realise I clearly haven't honed my research skills, but google is always worth a click or two to see what you find.

I'm applying, as you may have gathered, for the FRU option at ICSL/City Law School. I have to demonstrate why I should be on the course, and what I bring to the course. Not quite sure! Mad skilz, clearly.

To be honest, I intend to do FRU whether I get on the course or not (24 places only), and so being on the course will just enable me to do more FRU work than my schedule would allow otherwise. Not sure if that's something I should mention that bluntly.

Things seem pretty quiet on the blog front, which is hardly surprising as the weather gets colder, and wetter and everyone harbours a partial desire to bed down and hibernate for the winter! Not much going on at this end either, just getting to know my group, and getting on with the course. I don't think I've managed to impress anyone yet, with my stunning advocacy which involved my getting up there, saying 'errrrrr' for a long time and then freezing stock still. Better luck this week, ay!

BVC Week 2 - grumbling over

So, grumpy as I was last week to have to be dealing with tube travel, and unpredictable London weather patterns again, I'm now much happier on the BVC.

I think the work is going to be manageable, although I'm going to have to push myself to stay on top of it (having been a chronic last-minuter in previous years) as I don't think a last minute cramming will cut it this year!

My group seems a cool bunch, and so we should be able to muddle through the year and maintain a sense of humour. There's a smattering of different accents from around the world, different ages (well, a couple of mature students), mix of lasses and lads, northeners and southerners, and even a bit of totty. (I think that's the word the kids are using these days?)

I heard some girls talking behind me in a lecture the other day (sorry, Large Group Session) about the dismal romantic prospects on the course which I found highly amusing. I had not given this any consideration. It seems there are only 2 men on the course worth anything. I felt rather offended on behalf of all the other lads on the course. I've chatted with a good handful of nice men on the course, so I think some people need to stop judging books by their covers!

Talking of books, having been given a stack of College manuals we are now advised that we are not to use these in classes, but only to refer to the practitioner's manuals in class. Whilst there is some merit in this (it's a good idea to not get in the habit of referring to an ICSL idiot's guide to Criminal litigation in court) I can't help but feel that the motivation is more to try and maintain this idea (for the benefit of the Bar Standards Board) that the course is a Master's/ LLM level course. Given that it seems clear we are to use the ICSL manuals for background reading, and that we are being spoonfed in all other respects, it seems highly doubtful to me that it is infact being taught at LLM level.

As I missed the first week and the first advocacy tutorial I'm only coming round to my first advocacy session this week, eek! Getting butterflies in my tummy just thinking about it. Can't wait - I love that feeling.

Start of the year blues

So I'm settling into the BVC and have been to my first Inn function. I've met a few nice people, and the diversity on the BVC is a pleasant surprise.

It's hard to face another year of uni (effectively) though. Paperwork and assignments. I must say I'm very unimpressed with the BVC so far - it seems to be a case of just stating the very obvious. Write clearly. Speak clearly. Learn the rules. Why this needs to take an entire year, I don't know. I feel like the Provider throws a lot of terms at us, and makes the learning of core skills very structured so that we feel we're getting value for money, but frankly I don't think it is.

I'm marginally annoyed that I have to give up relatively few days off (when I was hoping to work) in order to go on Court Visits and then fill in the silly questionnaire (about Court decor or something) afterwards. I have been in court as a mini-pupil, as a clerk, as a member of the public observing, and as a juror. I've sat in criminal court, in family court, in commercial court. I've even seen courts in different countries and been in chambers with a judge. Short of being a barrister, or a judge, I'm not sure what other view I could have of a courtroom. Thus, I'm not convinced of the usefulness of these court visits - but I'm open to the possibility of being proved wrong.

Still, I shall throw myself into this and hope to be a better advocate by the end of it! I did have a rush of 'first day at school' excitement when I first walked in, so maybe there's hope yet!

First week of the BVC...

Despite my earlier post about there being no posts for a while, yesterday's trip to ICSL has left me in a bit of a pickle.

I'd gotten the term dates a bit messed up (the information I was given ages ago was out by a week), so it looks like I shall be missing some of the first week - if the Registrar even lets me register, apparently I can't possibly hope to get through the course if I miss a single induction or tutorial. Hmm.

I've been reading other people's post on the first few BVC days (Android, yours has been really helpful :) ) but I know that different providers may differ.

Is there really that much to the first few days/ week of the BVC? I don't mind missing introductions anyway, I have the common sense of a dingbat and so invariably end up wandering around aimlessly not knowing where I'm doing with or without the induction!

*sigh* Must do better.

Thoughts on a shorter BVC

I'm trying to get a feel for how the BVC will be, through Facebook groups, other blogs and the Provider's website. One of the discussions I came across concerned the length of the course itself.

It had been suggested that the course ought to be made shorter, so as to reduce costs and...well I'm not quite sure why else. Perhaps so that hopeless candidates waste less of their time, and people can see earlier one whether they will obtain pupillage etc. I understand that this has been periodically considered by the Bar Council as well, alongside other proposed BVC reforms.

I'm not sure what my position on this is. Indeed, in the States the Bar Exam is a 2 day exam and prep classes offered only run for 2-3 months before the exam itself. This is all conducted immediately after completion of final years exams, and so by August a student will have graduated from Law School and hopefully passed the Bar.

But the Bar exam is fundamentally different there. No advocacy, research or drafting skills are taught - the whole endeavour is an exercise in memory and exam skills. There are no opportunities to moot or do pro bono work, which may be of more relevance to non-law graduates who have not had an opportunity to moot before. The Bar Exam is the bare-bones of basic legal knowledge; a basic test of competence in that if you can't even get the hang of memorising a few Civ Pro rules you probably shouldn't be allowed to practice. I don't think that the US Bar has the same aims as the BVC.

I get the impression that the BVC has broader aims - to prepare a student for the Bar, develop various skills (as mentioned above, negotiation, drafting, research). Perhaps the longer timescale is needed therefore. The US Bar does not cover these skills and the approach is that new practitioners will learn these skills on the job.

I am told by many graduates of the BVC that there is little point in learning these things on the BVC, because you un-learn or re-learn them in pupillage and thus they support a shorter, pared down BVC. However, I see two problems with this approach:

1- With hindsight, it is easy to play down what you have learned and forgot that the process of learning is as important, at least, as the knowledge and skills you have gained. Even if you do learn to do things in a different way as a pupil, I think intuitively that the BVC must have provided the necessary foundation for this. An analogy for this would be learning Spanish when you have already learned French to a high level; it is much easier than just starting from scratch with Spanish or Italian because you will recognise a lot of the vocabulary and understand how the rules of grammar function, even if they are different rules.

2 - If more of the training is left to Chambers in pupillage, surely this will make this even harder to attain pupillage? I imagine this to be so based on the fact that available pupillages dropped once minimum funding was introduced and so it became costlier to provide pupillages. The costlier it is, the lower the number of pupillages available it seems. In the US, if no-one will hire you it is relatively easy to set up shop on your own. This is not the case here.

These are just some thoughts, I otherwise find the idea of a shorter BVC attractive - the costs of self-funding are lower for a 3-6 month period than for the academic year, and I could do other things in the rest of the year- work, travel, internships etc. I might have already done the BVC by now if it was a short course.

Finally however, depending on the make-up of a shorter course timing would have to be considered. Following a tough third year immediately with a Bar course that requires anything like real brain work would be very tough physically and emotionally. I could see the fatigue in the eyes of my colleagues on the New York Bar exam. I imagine people would adjust to this, they always do, but it is definitely something to consider.

Fighting talk and Resolutions

Being back at my dull desk job leaves me lots of time to look up things on the 'net that I would rather be doing than amending client bills. And so I have made some decisions.

I am going to apply for some LLMs - prob to Oxbridge, the BCL just for the hell of it (won't get in, but you never know) and to some schools in New York - specificially the International Law programme at NYU. That is my current dream. If I really enjoy the LLM, then I can then consider a Phd but it would be silly to commit myself to that now.

It's very competitive and everybody and his uncle wants to do international law these days. So what- what's the point in working so hard if you're not even going to aim for what you love? If I had a passion for wharbling or tapdancing, I'm sure I'd be wanting to be on Pop Idol or something. I have a passion for international law, and really the Bar is a sort of professional pop idol, is it not? (With about equal chances of success, it might be said).

And then, I will actually apply for pupillage. At those dream sets, where I have a 1 in a zillion chance of getting in. And then I will apply everywhere else, where I have a roughly 1 in 4 chance of getting in. And yes, everyone does think that they'll be that 1 in 4.

But I got onto my uni degree - and 3,000 people applied for 150 places. Out of the people offered places, 50 of those were interviewed for a particular degree course with only 4 spots, and I got one of them. So I've fought those kinds of odds before and made it.

Anyway, isn't the foolish pursuit of dreams and desires what being young is all about? With this in mind, and also because it has always made more sense to me to make resolutions at the start of the academic, rather than the calendar year, here is my action plan and list of goals for the year ahead:

What I will do:

1. Pass the BVC. Perhaps even do well.
2. Get a job which will pay for the BVC.
3. Do lots of FRU. It's been about 2 years ago now that I did that induction day...!
4. Learn a language. Or rather go up a level in one of my existing languages.
5. Apply to LLM programmes - on time!
6. Do some other law work - volunteering or research or something - and some minis (which I have yet to do).
7. See some of europe - it's so close after all!
8. Read more - I used to read voraciously but seem to have lost the habit since the LLb taught me to feel guiltly when reading non-law.
9. Get fit and eat healthily, work on my posture. Generally be fitter, happier, more productive.

Hmm, there should be a No. 10. Maybe I will moot too - and deal with Olpas.

Things I will not do:

• Get home every night, watch some telly and fall asleep. Or go to bed and watch tv online...
• Become a couch potato (who am I kidding, I mean remain a couch potato)
• Fail the BVC (!)
• Miss deadlines the way I usually do (but I like the sound of them whooshing by so...)
• Similarly, win gold in the Procrastination olympics as I have done in previous years

Have I missed something? I think those are all do-able. No sailing down the Amazon saving orphans or writing a small country's constitution, but you have to start somewhere!

Signed up for a year of pain

Handed over my deposit cheque at ICSL yesterday. The poor secretary might have needed to pry it out of my hands, but they have it now.

So I'm officially signed up for the BVC next year, woo!

Actually quite looking forward to it too.

Wonder what I'll do along side it...open to suggestions.