Welcome to the Advocacy Club

The Advocacy Club was founded in 2007 to train articling students and junior lawyers in the arts of civil advocacy. Since then, it has expanded to include hundreds of participants from many law firms and governmental organizations. The Club's sessions are based on these principles:

• Trainees learn more by doing than by listening to lectures.
• Junior advocates benefit greatly from networking with other like-minded professionals.
• Collegiality, professionalism, and competence are interrelated and form the foundation for a successful career in law.​

For more information, watch the Advocacy Club's promotional video here and download the Club's brochure here. While a bit dated, the brochure conveys the essence of what makes the Advocacy Club a special place for junior advocates.

Advocacy Club Bootcamp

Upgrade your legal skills:
Take the Advocacy Club Bootcamp!
October 15 and 17, 12:30 to 5:00 - This session takes place at Nelligan O'Brien Payne offices and is fully subscribed.
January 14 and 16, 9:00-1:00 - This session takes place at KPMG Forensic Servvices offices, 150 Elgin #1800. This session is open for subscription.

What is the Advocacy Club Bootcamp? A practical, formula-based program that arms junior litigators with the essentials to survive and succeed in today's civil courtrooms.

This comprehensive training program covers the basics of civil trial advocacy: interview skills, case analysis, outlining examinations, discovery, direct and cross-examination techniques, presenting legal argument and public speaking. All in 9.0 hours of mixed presentations, drills, and exercises.

Details of the Boot Camp can be found here. 

Boot camps typically run for two half days, either mornings or afternoons, and typicallly on a Tuesday and a Thursday.  ​Contact John Hollander to reserve your spot for this next session. 

Boot camps can be specifically tailored to an area of law. There have be been boot camps run in two departments of the fedeal government. They can be modified to include expert witnesses or include/exclude specific types of examination. They could even be modified to train solicitors or in-house corporate counsel.

• CPD: Sessions qualify as 7.5 hours substantive and 1.5 hours professional CPD, of which 1.0 hour qualifies as the EDI component lawyers require annually.
• Cost: $370 for lawyers and $250 for paralegals, articling and summer students, plus HST.
• Payment via credit card or PayPal, can be arranged here for lawyers and here for students, etc.

​Club News and Events

Announcing the 4th Annual Advocacy Cub at Trembello

For the 4th year, CCLA is sponsoring a room for the Advocacy Club at the Litigation Conference in  Mt. Tremblant. Saturday morning November 16, 2019 at 8:00 a.m. Come meet the three new Small Claims Court deputy judges. The topics will be motions and pre-trials in the Small Claims Court, spiced up with some video vignettes. Meet and greet your peers. Just bring your own coffee. All Club members and their guests are welcome. Just let organizer Craig Williams (Club 18) know, at williams.craigandrew@gmail.com.

Advanced Advocacy Club Training Sessions for 2019

During the 2019 calendar year, the Advocacy Club will present the following sessions all at the offices of KPMG Forensic Services, 150 Elgin #1800, Ottawa.

April 17, 2019	May 11, 2019	June 12, 2019
Negotiation 101: ​How to Settle Disputes without Mediation	7th Annual Advocacy Club Retreat	3rd Annual Advocacy Club/  CCLA Presentation: How Litigators Should Deal with Each Other
Organized by: Kelli-Anne Day	​Organized by: Aleksandra Gracia Melissa Bastarache Simone Akiyanu Craig Williams	Organized by: Michelle Doody Nigel McKechnie
Team Leaders: Rosalind Conway Rohan Bansie Bill Neville Rob De Toni	Presented by: ​Former Ontario Attorney-General Yasir Naqvi David Taylor Meagan LePage Thomas Finlay Katie Black	Presented by: Mary Jane Binks and Mary Cybulski (family law) Ian McBride and Anthony Imbesi (commercial law) Mark Ertel and Hart Shouldice (criminal law)
Sponsored by KPMG. Many thanks to organizers, team leaders and participants!	Sponsored by KPMG. Many thanks to presenters, organizers, group leaders, and participants!	Sponsored by KPMG. Many thanks to presenters, organizers, group leaders, and participants!

July 17, 2019 4:00-6:00 at KPMG Forensic 150 Elgin #1800, Ottawa	September 11, 2019 ​4:00-6:00 at KPMG Forensic ​150 Elgin #1800, Ottawa	October 16, 2019 ​4:00-6:00 at KPMG Forensic ​150 Elgin #1800, Ottawa ​(This session is fully subscribed)
Motions Techniques: Techniques to Prepare for and Argue a Motion	Discovery Techniques 1 - Good Questions, Bad Questions, Bad Answers and Judgment Calls	Discovery Techniques 2 - Offence (Getting all the Information) and Defence (Preparing your Witness and Dealing with Aggressive Counsel)
Organized by: John Hollander	​Organized by: ​Dawn Baglole	Organized by: Natalie Gajewski
​Presented by: Ian McBride Natalie Scott	Presented by: Brenda Hollingsworth ​Dawn Baglole	​Presented by: Allison Klymyshyn Natalie Gajewski
Sponsored by MBC Law Professional Corp. and KPMG. Many thanks to presenters and participants!	Sponsored by Auger Hollingsworth and KPMG.Many thanks to presenters and participants!	Sponsored by Cavanagh LLP and KPMG. Cost $65 plus HST,  payable here.

Announcing: KPMG's Curriculum for Lawyers 

Kas Rehman, KPMG Partner, Advisory Services, Forensic

KPMG Forensic Services in Ottawa has supported and sponsored Advocacy Club events since 2016. They have supplied expert witnesses for exercises, and presenters for the 2019 Symposium Series. Now they have published a "Curriculum for Lawyers", a 23-page explanation of financial terms, concepts and subjects for lawyers. Check it out here. And contact KPMG partner, Kas Rehman, here.

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From Novice Lawyer to Skilled Advocate

Founded by John Hollander in 2007 in Ottawa, the Advocacy Club trains novice lawyers to become skilled advocates.  It has two focuses:
​

• To teach the art of advocacy through preparation, interview and examination
• To promote collegiality among advocacy peers.
  ​

Our training methods emphasize practical exercise sessions without lectures. The initial training (the Boot Camp) consists of two half days of four hours each. The first half day focuses on interview skills, case analysis and outlining techniques. The second applies the lessons of the first session to examinations and closing arguments. Boot Camp enrolment is limited so that participants get the most out of each session.

​By the end of the Boot Camp, junior advocates have learned to apply the techniques to most of the situations they encounter in their practice. After this initial training, Club members participate in advanced sessions that take place throughout the year. To date these sessions have included training in:

• Focused cross examination techniques
• Focused direct examination techniques
• Presentation skills (led by professional actress and coach, Kristina Watt)
• Discovery techniques 
• ​Advanced discovery techniques - dealing with poor questions and non-responsive answers
• Advanced discovery - dealing with aggressive counsel and witnesses
• Negotiation tactics 
• Mediation and settlement conferences
• Case analysis
• Objections 
• Openings and closings
• Motions advocacy ​
• Expert witnesses (several separate sessions with accountants, occupational therapists and psychologists)
• Impeachment of witnesses
• Public speaking
• Communications skills (qualifies as EDI and professionalsim hours)

For detailed course descriptions, go to: Courses 

John has written several handbooks presenting the Advocacy Club techniques. They are available through Irwin Law Publishers and on Amazon.com at John's Author Page here. 

In January 2014, John Hollander Professional Corporation was approved as an Accredited Provider of Professionalism Content by the Law Society of Ontario. This accreditation applies to all Advocacy Club Programs to which professionalism content is applicable. 
​
If you have any questions for John, or are interested in Advocacy Club training sessions, go to the Contact page.

Empathy Skills Course

Announcing:
Empathy Skills Course for CPD/EDI Credits
​Dates in 2019 TBA

The Advocacy Club incorporates the Empathy Toy (tm) in its Boot Camp to teach communications and empathy skills to junior advocates. Watch the video from the creators, Twenty One Toys, here.

Now this amazing and effective session is available for small groups (between 4 and 8) of lawyers of all levels of seniority. The session has the collateral benefit of team-building. Qualifies as 60 minutes of the Equality, Diversity and Equity component of professional hours of CPD by the Law Society of Ontario.

"Communications by a lawyer are a crucial element of the position – whether it be with clients, fellow lawyers or the public in general. It is essential that we understand how to communicate with all individuals regardless of race or gender. John’s seminar provides guidance in doing all that and is useful for all lawyers regardless of experience or background. I recently participated in a session with several other senior lawyers. We all benefitted from the experience."

Roger Ramonat

Soon to be available through the Advocacy Club and through the County of Carleton Law Association, contact John Hollander for more details.

​Chat with Lawyers Podcast Series

​John Hollander interviews lawyers to present an entertaining discussion of their careers and techniques. Each podcast runs less than an hour. All of the episodes feature discussions with senior lawyers about issues faced by junior lawyers when dealing with professional choices. The accomplished guests present tips and guidance with respect to an area of law (e.g. Construction, Family, Personal Injury/Insurance Defence), a component of litigation practice (e.g. Discovery, Trial Preparation, Mediation, Factum Writing) or a subject related to career development (e.g. Promotion, Partnership, Professionalism, Starting a Law Practice, Work-life Balance and Maternity Leave). An impressive group of counsel has participated in these one-on-one and one-on-two interviews. 

Most recent interviews are with Yasir Naqvi, on the importance of engaging in political organization, available here, and Christophe Bondy, on creating a career in Pubic International Law, available here.   

All episodes can be found at: www.chatwithlawyers.ca.​

To the Firms that have Sponsored 2019 Events...
​Thank You!

• ​KPMG Forensic Services
• Kelly Santini
• Brazeau Seller/Yegendorf
• Smart & Biggar/Fetherstonhaugh
• ​Macera & Jarzyna/Moffatt
• University of Ottawa Law School (PPD)
• ​Cavanagh ​
• Auger Hollingsworth
• ​Nelligan O'Brien Payne