Peter Lyons delivered a 2 day advocacy course to Local Government Solicitors in Wolverhampton July. Some of those who attended were fulfilling their CPD requirements having obtained Higher Rights of Audience in 2013.
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Peter attended a conference in Glasgow run by Charles Hennessy of the University ofStrathclyde Law School.
The subject of the conference was the imminent introduction of judicial case management to the Scottish Courts of Law. There were several excellent speakers including Sheriff Andrew Cubie, the Deputy Director of the Judicial Institute of Scotland; Judge Susan Walker of the Employment Tribunal and Professor Bryan Clark, the Dean of the Law School.
There was much debate about whether the rules were need and how they would work.
Peter Anderson, the managing partner of Simpson & Marwick in Edinburgh concluded the session with the flawless speech of a devil’s advocate.
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In September, Peter Lyons taught at Queen’s University on the 5 day Advanced Advocacy programme run by the Law Society of Northern Ireland.
Alongside him were Michael and Jo-Anne Roake from New Mexico; Whitney Untiedt from Miami; J.C. Lore from New Jersey and Carol Sowers from Illinois.
A number of distinguished practitioners and judges led by Fiona Donnelly assisted with the delivery of the course.
The centrepiece was a day of expert witness training. Several leading Belfast consultant doctors were examined and cross-examined by the course participants.
The week concluded with 6 simultaneous trials in the Belfast High Court. They were presided over by former justice of the Supreme Court of Ireland, Catherine Mc Guinness; English Circuit judge James Patrick and a number of prominent Belfast judges including Judge Patrick Kinney.
For Peter Lyons, who was attending for the 10th year running, the Belfast hospitality was overwhelming generous.