Seventeen senior lawyers from the Pacific region are taking part in an intensive “Train the Trainer” program, led by some of Victoria’s most experienced barristers.

This unique two-week program is being held in Melbourne for the second time and is designed to build advocacy skills that will assist the lawyers in future court appearances. It will also equip them to teach advocacy to junior lawyers and law students in their home countries.

The program comprises shadowing and mentoring sessions with specialist advocacy trainers and barristers, as well as courtroom observation days, including briefings with judicial officers. All barristers and judiciary members are volunteers.

Participants are from a diverse range of legal backgrounds, spanning many areas across civil and criminal law with varying levels of experience. Among them are 13 delegates from Papua New Guinea, two delegates from Vanuatu and one delegate each from Fiji and Samoa.

Victorian Bar President Justin Hannebery KC said the Bar was proud of its advocacy training program. He said good advocacy was at the core of the Bar’s values.

“Improving access to a system of law in a just and fair society is something we all aspire to,” he said. “Advocacy is a constant learning experience, and I hope this program provides participants with a rewarding experience.”

Peter O’Farrell KC, Chair of the Victorian Bar’s International Advocacy Training Committee (IATC), said the participants had all been chosen by their countries as the next generation of leaders.

“This is the second year of the program following the initial one, which was a great success,” Mr O’Farrell said. “The goal is to build capacity in advocacy training in the Pacific.”

Mr O’Farrell KC said it was the IATC’s hope that in five years’ time, 100 lawyers from Pacific Nations would have completed the program to build a cohort of lawyers across the Pacific teaching advocacy to junior lawyers, law students and the profession in their home countries.

Stacey Levakia-Wali, who is the Assistant Director and Program Officer for judicial officers with the Pacific Centre for Judicial Excellence, attended as a participant in the inaugural program last year. She said the outcomes of the program varied for each participant.

“In Papua New Guinea, the aim over the next five years is to establish a local team of advocacy trainers to teach local students at the Legal Training Institute in criminal and civil advocacy,” she said.

For 40 years, members of the Victorian Bar and judiciary have assisted the legal profession in the Pacific by providing advocacy training to lawyers. It builds on Australia and New Zealand’s long-standing support for the rule of law and effective administration of justice in the Pacific since the 1980s.

This year, the Victorian Bar has partnered with the Papua New Guinea Centre for Judicial Excellence, the Pacific Centre for Judicial Excellence, the Pacific Justice Sector Program, the Australia-Papua New Guinea Law and Justice Partnership, the Australia Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the New Zealand Government to deliver the program.

Source: www.vicbar.com.au