Admitting inexperience

One of the problems you can face early in your career is that tribunals don’t take account of your inexperience. It can feel as if you’re expected to reach the standard expected of an experienced lawyer from the first moment you start representing clients.

To some extent this is just not a problem that should be solved. Tribunals expect a certain basic standard of all representatives. Inexperienced shouldn’t mean incompetent.

But beginners are inevitably less skilled than experienced people. It is not unreasonably to expect the tribunal to cut you a little slack in your first few appearances.

Generally, tribunals notice when you are a beginner. But if they don’t, should you tell them?

There is no absolute answer to this. It will depend on you, your client, your opponent, the tribunal and the situation. Here are some pros and cons:

Pros

• The tribunal may cut you some slack. This can take a number of forms, but include giving you a bit more latitude in cross-examination, being more willing to listen during your submissions, doing more work to translate what you say into the correct legal language and so on.
• The tribunal may also simply be nicer to you. This sounds minor, but actually can be quite important. Hearings, particularly your first couple, are often extremely stressful. It’s easy to be thrown right off your stride by even a mild reproof from the Judge.

Cons

• You may annoy the tribunal by appearing to ask for special treatment.
• Your submissions may carry less weight.
• You may undermine your client’s confidence in you.
• The Respondent may see it as a sign of weakness.

If you do decide to come clean about your inexperience, do so shortly and directly. Don’t apologise or be sheepish. Just say that this is your first (or second, or whatever) case and you hope the tribunal will bear with you. And do it right at the beginning: if you bring it up only when the tribunal barks at you, it will sound like an excuse.