SimmonsCooper Partners is pleased to announce the commencement of its Advocacy Development Initiative (SADI). SADI is designed principally for law school students and undergraduates seeking to initiate, nurture and develop their advocacy skills. Successful students are entitled to a range of long-lasting benefits that include professional development, tuition support, exposure and mentorship.
SADI is a community service effort of SimmonsCooper Partners to empower and prepare aspiring young lawyers for a successful professional legal career. Participation in SADI is subject to the qualification process in the SADI Trial Series
SADI Trial Series Competition
The SADI Trial Series has two components and stages:
- Stage 1: A Brief Writing Component where participants are requested to write a structured argument of a hypothetical factual dispute, either as Claimant/ Plaintiff or as Defendant. The Brief Writing should be structured in the following manner: Introduction,
- Stage 2: The Oral Advocacy Component where ten successful participants who meet the requisite quotient in Stage 1 are invited to make a formal oral presentation to a panel of judges.
Benefits:
Participants will have an opportunity to develop and test their writing skills. The test will accentuate organization, persuasion, and presentation skills. Our panel of appellate judges some who will have served as trial judges will provide “don’t miss” perspectives on this critical aspect of the litigation process. Participants will even learn how to overcome the special challenges associated with presenting a case to judges.
- All ten participants who qualify for Stage 2 automatically qualify to participate in SCP Mentorship Programme;
- The best four of the ten participants will be entitled to a periodic automatic internship slot with SimmonsCooper Partners;
- These will be Bursary awards for the best three participants-
- The 1st gets a bursary award of N250,000.00;
- the 2nd gets a bursary award of N150,000.00;
- the 3rd gets a bursary award of N 100,000.00.
Eligibility
SADI is open to students of the Nigerian Law School and upper-level (penultimate and final year) law undergraduates in Nigerian Universities.
Competition starts on July 20th 2009 and ends Aug 10th 2009.
Rules
You can download a pdf file of the rules here. Right Click on this link and choose save as.
Rules PDF
Brief must be in size 12 font, and spaced on 1.5 paragraphed lines. The Brief must not exceed 15 A-4 sized pages in length. All final work must be justified, signed by the Participant, and must adhere to the following order:
- Introduction- State succinctly what your case or most forceful point is. Here, attempt to present a picture of the real focus you intend the court to keep, including amplifying the absurd implications of the opposing side’s position; It should say something striking about the case. It should be no longer than 2 paragraphs.
- Statement of Facts- You may state the procedural history, who filed an application or other process, and what has been filed in response. Here, you also state the relevant facts you want the panel to remember in its determination. You should also state your opponents case, albeit in an analytical and controlled manner. In short sentences, bring the reader up to speed. Include in your statement of facts every fact that you will later mention in your argument. Do not include facts that are unnecessary for your argument.
- Issues for Determination- “The best argument on a question of law is to state the question clearly.” Rufus Choate; “In law the right answer usually depends on putting the right question”. Estate of Rogers v. Comm’r, 320 U.S 410, 413 [1943] (Frankfurter, J.]. Please consider breaking your issues into intelligent parts, and sentences. The norm today is to have a long, unintelligible, often confusing question starting with “whether”. In developing your issues, consider a premise-premise-question structure. Remember the norm is not always correct.
- Argument- When writing your argument, remember that we are practitioners, not academics. Your professors discussed cases to be interesting. We prefer statutes or rules to cases. If there is a statute or rule on point, discuss it before you begin discussing the case law. Avoid quibbles and trite meaningless language. Keep your argument simple and enhance clarity.
- Conclusion- For these reasons, this court should (grant our motion OR deny the other guy's motion)
- List of Authorities: Remember correct citation forms.
General
To be successful as a lawyer, you must know how to write. Here are the rules. Follow them. The judges will make three assumptions about your Brief. First, it will contain no typographical errors. Second, it will contain no grammatical errors. Third, all citation forms will be correct. Please review your written work before you submit your Brief to be sure that these assumptions hold true.
We have Seven (7) Cardinal rules of styles. Here are the rules of styles. Follow them:
- First, write in short sentences. If a sentence runs on for more than three and one-half typed lines, break the sentence in half. Make it two sentences;
- Second, put two or three paragraphs on a typed page. If a single fills the whole page, break the paragraph in half. Make it two paragraphs;
- Third, use only the active voice. In your Brief, please write "Tade threw the ball." Not "The ball was thrown by Tade"
- Fourth, avoid quibbles, verbosity and lack of context. Say what you want to say. Avoid the use of terms like “we respectfully submit”, just make your point. Also remember that it is your client’s case and not your case or that of opposing counsel. Your language must always reflect the parties and not mention counsel in the matter. This is important. Few people do it, even in practice. We advise you do it;
- Fifth, use many headings and sub-headings to break up your memorandum or brief. Little pieces are easier to read;
- Sixth, as much as possible, do not start a sentence with the word "however." Rewrite the sentence to put the word "however" in the middle of the sentence. (Again, there are exceptions to this rule. Do not worry about them. If you follow this rule, you will be right 95 percent of the time. If the panel thinks that an exception applies, it will be noted).
- Seventh, and finally, it is your obligation and in your interest to follow these rules. It is not the Panel’s obligation to find your mistakes. You must develop the self-discipline to read your final work with an eye toward finding and correcting each of the errors listed above.
Other tips
When you are writing a legal memorandum or Brief:
- The trial court held something (The trial court did not "discuss" something or "analyze" something or "believe" something ; it HELD something. Ordinarily, a trial court grants or denies a motion, or enters a judgment. Use the proper verb to describe the holding.)
- The appellate court held something. (Ordinarily, an appellate court will affirm, reverse, vacate, or remand.)