Which areas of law require advocacy?

[pinotgrigio]

I can only think of human rights, criminal law... but not much else. I liked this aspect of law, specifically mooting, and I'd wanna know what's available. I already have an idea of what area of law I'd want to practice in but I'm not married to anything at the moment ofc.

Edited July 13, 2022 by pinotgrigio

[CleanHands]

You're going to have to define what you mean by "advocacy," because if that's your take on it you are employing a much narrower definition than most people in the field would.

[pinotgrigio]

4 minutes ago, CleanHands said:

You're going to have to define what you mean by "advocacy," because if that's your take on it you are employing a much narrower definition than most people in the field would.

My bad, I'm referring to areas of law that often spend time in hearings/trials as part of their procedure. 

[razraini]

Given your reference to “mooting”, I assume you’re equating “advocacy” with trials or adversarial/contested proceedings/litigation in general. 

Trial advocacy and arguing in court over contested hearings happens often in criminal practice. But junior civil litigators and family law practitioners also make contested applications before chambers judges even if they are not running full-fledged trials (as an aside, I am differentiating between the two since they tend to market themselves separately). Litigation is embedded within many areas of practice too such as tax law, labour and employment, Indigenous and Aboriginal law.

But advocating for any given client’s interests can occur out of court too. Communications with opposing counsel will necessarily carry an element of advocacy since your conversations are for the purpose of advocating your client’s interests.

[pinotgrigio]

30 minutes ago, razraini said:

Given your reference to “mooting”, I assume you’re equating “advocacy” with trials or adversarial/contested proceedings/litigation in general. 

Trial advocacy and arguing in court over contested hearings happens often in criminal practice. But junior civil litigators and family law practitioners also make contested applications before chambers judges even if they are not running full-fledged trials (as an aside, I am differentiating between the two since they tend to market themselves separately). Litigation is embedded within many areas of practice too such as tax law, labour and employment, Indigenous and Aboriginal law.

But advocating for any given client’s interests can occur out of court too. Communications with opposing counsel will necessarily carry an element of advocacy since your conversations are for the purpose of advocating your client’s interests.

This is really good, thanks!

[Bob Jones]

As a civil litigator, I can say litigation is such a pain in the ass. It’s not as sexy as moot court. You’ll see. 

[TheAEGIS]

On 7/13/2022 at 12:11 AM, pinotgrigio said:

I can only think of human rights, criminal law... but not much else. I liked this aspect of law, specifically mooting, and I'd wanna know what's available. I already have an idea of what area of law I'd want to practice in but I'm not married to anything at the moment ofc.

All of them.

No seriously - "court room advocacy" can happen in just about any forum/practice area.
Everything from personal injury to immigration, tax, admin, municipal, corporate/commercial, intellectual property, family , wills, estates, crim., the list is endless.

I think the distinction you're actually making here is between being a litigator vs a solicitor. 
And it's certainly the case that not all lawyers do both.

[razraini]

15 hours ago, Bob Jones said:

As a civil litigator, I can say litigation is such a pain in the ass. It’s not as sexy as moot court. You’ll see. 

As a crim lawyer, it ain’t sexy over here either. Usually.

[CleanHands]

2 hours ago, razraini said:

As a crim lawyer, it ain’t sexy over here either. Usually.

 

[razraini]

1 hour ago, CleanHands said:

 

How I thought the trial would go:

 

How it went:

 

The court of appeal: