My LPC, (Legal Practice Course)

Sunday, January 21, 2007

What a difference a day makes...

Sometimes it's not easy to know what to write for this blog. I'll sit here for a while staring into space before putting some random thoughts down. I'll usually strain for a while even trying to get a title that ties it all in.

Today, that is not a problem. This should be one of the easiest entries I've ever had to do-but at the same time what I have to write will be very hard. I hope that you'll understand as you read it through. Writing this does have a tendency to leave myself open and expose myself to public scrutiny-but when I started I promised a 'warts n all' version' so here goes.

BTW, I shall not be copying last weeks technique of knocking the computer cabinet with my knee within 2 seconds of 'sending' my submission to Blogspot. My computer crashed big time and I was seriously stressed about having to type it all out again. Fortunately, it had reached its destination but nevertheless did give me puppies.

Parental advisary notice: Some of the language used today may not be suitable for my parents.

Two weeks of workshops etc remain for the compulsary part of the course. The subjects feel very different, property has a 'well, we've covered it all but if you take a reeeeeeeaalllllly long time over these we can stretch them out a bit further'-whereas criminal has more of a 'oh my god, we've only got 5 sessions and have to read 400-500 pages of A4, watch video tutorials, answer problems and generally PAAAAAANNNNNNNNNIIIIIICCCCC!!!'

Monday, that has become laaaazzzzzzy day-just catching up on my rest as we slowly meander to the end of leasehold law. Our work consists of us analysing a lease and applying the provisions in various circumstances.
Which would be great if all leases were identical, unfortunately as you well know they do come in infinite flavours and varieties. So we look at very general (and usually imcomprehensible) terms and hope that when a lease comes up in an exam we will be able to unscramble the enigma (Da Vinci code my butt cheeks-give Tom Hanks a commercial lease and see how sodding clever he is...)

After this class, I was meant to get together with my tablemates (as were) from Civil Litigation-the reason being that each table had been given a group activity to do some time before Christmas and we are meant to post these on the College intranet for Friday.
Being the 'last possible minute' student that I am-I did mine on Monday morning, taking just under 2 hours to do it. When we got together after class, it turned out that I was the only bugger to have done anything.
The others had 'looked' at the questions but not written a single word down. Regular readers will remember that this has happened once before with this lot. At least then I got the heat taken off me for that particular class-but here I got no favours or freebies, they could have at least(this part has been censored in case my mother reads it)

What was worse-no one had brought their notes and only one of them had had the wit to bring the textbook. So we chatted for about 20 minutes about what answers I had and what we could agree-which was precious little since we had put the subject to one side for over a month and only I had looked at it recently.
I left my answers with them and went home-let them pull the bones out of it...

Monday night I didn't sleep well, I was becoming steadily more apprehensive about Wednesday afternoon. Even dosed and medicated, my sleep was disturbed and erratic.

That afternoon we had our second insolvency workshop. I had produced a fair stack of work-both notes and prep task and was quite confident of my material. Only problem was it was a very disappointing workshop. The first 90 minutes were spent deeply analysing the prep task, the remainder was spent doing an oral exercise that had very similar roots to the prep task-but because it was oral we have no written notes or feedback.
(BTW old habits never die-just like from junior school and upwards, if you put a group of people together and get them to interact about their subject and the tutor/teacher is not hovering over them, the work invariably gets dropped and they chat about tv/nights out or sport...)

Hurrah, the final business large groups lecture. A very good turnout-even though we know that we are going to be lectured on the new Companies Act (since the start of term we have studied the 1985 Act-but the new Act has now been passed by Parliament and the new provisions of it are slowly being released into the business world ready for complete use by 2008. The one important question for us is...

...are we going to be tested on it in the exam?

And the answer is maybe...we may have a question or two in the mutiple choice section. So, even though a lot of us were planning on leaving pre-lecture if we were told that no questions were going to be set on it during the exams, we wimped out and stayed throughout.

What a bunch of pussies, not a single cohone amongst us. I blame the Estrogen in the water supply...

I approached my bed tentativly on Tuesday night, much as I needed sleep I knew that I would get pitifully little-the great day of fear was here. Wednesday is interview practice day.

The premise is simple, 2 students sit in a small room with a tutor and one pretends to be a client and the other interviews them. After the interview, the 'client' goes out whilst the tutor gives feedback on the 'solicitors' performance.

After a suitable break, the students meet up again and this time they take the other role on. Each student has been given a script a few weeks ago that explains about their client role and what problems they have.
The 'solicitor' using skill, tact and wit manages to extract the story from them, explains the law and advises them about their options. Piece of widdle, huh?

Except not to me. Anything like this is a major nightmare. I have pitifully little self confidence at the best of times-and having to stake a pass/fail mark on my knowledge-let alone the other interviewing skills had left me as a nervous wreck. It's a bit of a worry that I was far more self confident of my role as a partner in a health food shop (who made the tasty pies, flans and sandwiches) who wanted to leave it and become an aromatherapist (all of which I know bugger all about) than the solicitor (who it is rumoured I would like to become).

But it gets worse-a double whammy in a few seconds!!

First whammy-my partner in the interview is the same guy who I was paired up with in the advocacy!! What's the fecking chance of that?? There are about 450 students here doing an LPC (not counting the 17 in my class that I can't have)-so how come I get him again? He's a lovely bloke but he's even less confident than I am (no really!-he is!) What a pair we make!

2nd whammy and one that almost laid me flat on the canvas. The tutor is my business tutor! Oh, crap on a stick! I expected to be bad-now its going to be 'bunny in the headlights' bad!

Anyhow, a little bit of luck came my way. I got to be the client first. This was OK for me-I managed to make a good job of being the client-I didn't need to refer to my script once (3 1/2 sides of A4) and my partner 'advised' me.
I really felt for him-he started off OK, but couldn't ask the right questions. I even tried to drop hints with my answers for him to pick up on and ask ancilliary questions-but it didn't happen. So, at the end of the interview, I left the room and went outside to get some air whilst the other guy got his feedback.

After about 20 minutes I returned and this time I was on the spot. I thought I started OK but knew that I was going to be bogged down by the law-I managed to squeak my way through and give some advice (very poor advice mind). One feature that helped was that there are only 6 scripts that could have been given out and I had taken time to look at them all, so I was quite au fait with the scenario I was advising on-only problem was the my client wasn't...

He really didn't know it at all-so now this time I was asking questions (that I knew the answer was there for) and he couldn't find the damn things.

As an aside I was told off in my feedback for not 'pushing' him on a point to get to the truth. With respect to the tutor-the only way he would have been able to answer the question would have been if I had lent over and underlined it in his script...He just didn't know it-he wasn't being coy or circumspect...

Anyhow, at the end of the interview, he scuttled away leaving me to face my feedback. I was asked how I though it went-I said that I knew the law was garbage but the rest may have been OK. My tutor then proceeded to explain my weaknesses.

Too fast (too fast, yes I know that I speak fast-its the way that I am-what amazes me about this is that, as I mentioned, my adjudicator here is my Friday tutor. And every Friday, as we leave the class we get together and bitch about how fast he speaks and how incomporehensible his classes are...

"Call for Mr Pot, its a Mister Kettle on line 1"

Too quiet, no small talk at the start, must introduce myself at the door not when I've sat down, I rushed through the options (but the law was OK!) and could have had a much better sign off. And then the moment of truth...


I had passed!!!!!!!!!!

Woohoo!!!

I won't say that I danced around the room (one still has a certain style you know) but I felt pretty damn good. Yes, I know it was a practice and didn't count but I never expected to pass the practice in a million years (and with the whammys 2 million)-so I wandered home a happy bunny (free from the lights of the juggernaut). That night I celebrated with a bottle of wine (2 bottles for £4.50-quality **cough**), snug in the knowledge that the legal train was rolling, rolling, rolling.

Thursday is criminal day, so I got up in good mood, refreshed and ready to kick CPS and police butt (we only get to do the defence side on this course-rest assured that I'm not becoming a traitor).

I checked my College email-one of them said that results were out today. This I knew and had been expecting to go to college and read them off the 'wall of pride' but the mail said that they were also posted on a college internet board. So I turned my mouse in that direction and found my candidate number (all written exams are done under candidate number not name so there can be no chance of bias shown by a particular tutor to a favoured (or not so) student.) I read along the line,

Business accounts

Passed


Legal research

Passed


Advocacy

Failed-not competent


I had failed!!

The following line has been censored for reasons of decency

I cannot actually express how I felt at that stage (3 days later I am still struggling). All I knew was that the legal train had just been derailed. I sat in disbelief-at the time I thought advocacy was not brilliant but I was sure that it had been good enough for a pass. Let's just say that the rest of the mornings prep was not great.

I wandered off to college-my first port of call was to see the 'wall of pride'-although in my case 'wall of shame' was more appropriate-yes my results were there and the same as on the web. I had been allocated a tutor to sit with and watch my video and she could then advise me on ways to improve. Since then I have been in email contact with her and we have agreed to meet on Tuesday before class. Fortunately, I dont have to watch myself (I would rather drink a bucket of lumpy sick than look at myself on tape)

About the only thing I can say is 'whuh'? This has hit me really hard-
  1. I can no longer achieve a 'distinction' (it was only an outside chance but at least I had a chancebefore
  2. This may affect my CPS application-advocacy is a vital part of the job (maybe the most vital) if they contact the college about my result I coud be screwed
  3. I do have a chance to retake it-in bloody May (3 1/2 months away-with no chance to practice in between) so whatever feedback I get on Tuesday could be pretty worthless.
  4. In the retake I will be up against another person who failed-nerves are infectious. In the same way that a calm person can calm those around them, so a nervy dweeb can also affect others. I affect him, he affects me-we both fail together.
  5. And I know, I just bloody know that I will be up against the guy I did advocacy the first time with (and my practice interviewing)!
My only hope is that the tutor who watches the tape to help me is willing to say that she thinks it should have been a pass. In that case I will appeal and see what happens. (a major problem being is that my 'judge' for the advocacy was a CofL 'higher being'-one of the founding figures and a video lecturer-so she may carry a bit of clout and be difficult to overrule)

In the meantime, I just roll on. But don't expect any zippy one-liners for a while...

OK, back to Thursday. Just to make my day complete, while I was standing looking at the 'wall of pitiful humiliation' the fire alarm sounded and we all got led (sheep dog style) up to one of the car parks. For anyone reading this at a later stage, during this week the UK experienced strong winds leading to a number of deaths. On the way to college I had got soaked by rain and now had to stand at the top of a hill with a whipping wind cutting through me. We stood there for about 20 minutes before we were given the 'all clear'.

Even the joys of criminal law failed to bring much of a smile. Perhaps the hardest part for me was the look of surprise on people's faces when I told them I had failed. Everyone I spoke to was genuinely shocked that I could have failed anything.

Criminal law-we have moved on a bit from the Magistrates and are now looking at Crown Court cases. This week was robbery and we had a chance to rip a few witnesses to pieces regarding identifications. It is much easier than you might think.

And alibis-they are much harder to remember than on the telly.

One of the events that shaped my interest in the criminal law was when I was interviewed (at home, not in the nick) regarding an alleged offence (the penalty for which is variable but can lead to life imprisonment)
I gave an alibi for the night of the incident (about 3 weeks earlier) but my alibi was bogus-I wasnt doing what I said I was. I said that after a night out playing cards I had walked back with a friend and we had gone for a swift half before parting. In fact I had been given a lift home by a completely barking (but really sweet) pensioner from French Martinique.

My alibi was false!!!

And I had been picked out because I 'matched' the identikit photo. Well, matched in the terms that I had two eyes, two ears and a nose. Nevertheless, being interviewed (even informally by 2 coppers) is still a nervewracking experience for a young innocent lad **cough**Perhaps that's where my terrible anxiety originated

**thinks bubble** could I sue the police for my problems since then?

NB In reply to a comment I would like to further explain-I did not lie to the police, I was asked where I was on a certain date at a certain time. I gave the answer I believed to be the case. I did not keep a diary at the time (this blog is now my 'Bridget Jones' style thing) and I honestly and reasonably believed the alibi I gave. (trust me, the offence was a very serious one-I would not have lied to police-a lie is a conscious thing to evade the truth) The reason that I mentioned this was to show how easy it is to make mistakes when questioned about events that happened in the past. I was interviewed only 3-4 weeks after the alleged incident-now try to imagine how difficult it would be after 3-4 months...

So there you go, it could happen to you (well, if you were a middle aged, overweight munter with piggy eyes, that is). So the next time you see a cop show and a villain gets nicked because of an ID from a lineout or whatever just remember, the Criminal Law Commission has discovered that the vast majority of false convictions come from identification evidence...

Moral-do not believe all you see on the telly, witnesses and honest alibis are often mistaken (and identikits are rubbish...)


Friday is still business day, but we have moved to general business law-which essentially meant contract and EU free movement and competition law. So I just had to revise what was (in total) 1 year of my undergraduate degree. Easy, huh? The workshop itself wasn't too bad-rather than endless Board Meeting Sandwiches (to any students thinking of an LPC after 2008, you are going to be so lucky because these should be consigned to the waste bin of history by then), we were set problems based around the Sale of Goods Act and Articles 28, 30, 81 and 82 of the original European Community Treaty. Although I think I was the only one who appreciated the change in pace.

Which leads me to the weekend. I worked for about 10 hours yesterday but couldn't get motivated today. I must draft an agreement by Thursday (its a marked assessment) but my muse has been sniffing glue again and is not being terribly inspirational...

This could be a long and painful week

1 Comments:

  • Paul, I'm shocked by your result too. I know some fairly weak (and nervous) advocates who passed at Guildford, and who convinced me that it's almost impossible for a half-decent candidate to fail!

    As there are so many candidates and assessors how does the CoL go about moderating the assessments? Presumably there is also an appeals process that you can use?

    Whatever the outcome don't let it affect your other studies mate; you've come too far already to blow it now!

    BTW I'm not sure that admitting lying to the police is a good idea. You'll be applying for admission to the Roll in a couple of years, if it comes to light then you'll have some serious explaining to do!!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:10 am  

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