Welcome

The Inns of Court College of Advocacy (formerly the ATC) was established by the Council of the Inns of Court (COIC). The College comprises barristers, judges and others drawn from the Inns, the Circuits, the Bar Council of England and Wales, Specialist Bar Associations and other representative organisations.

Our main functions are to provide leadership, guidance and coordination in relation to the pursuit of excellence in advocacy.

Use the links below to explore what we do:

Promoting Reliability in Expert Evidence

The ICCA is hosting three one-day conferences on the handling of expert witnesses...

Youth Justice Advocacy

ICCA has produced some guidance for practitioners representing children...

Advocacy and the Vulnerable

The ‘Advocacy and the Vulnerable’ Training Programme has been designed to ensure...

International Advocacy Training

ICCA (formerly the ATC), as required by its constitution, is committed to assisting...

On Saturday 6 April 2019, the ICCA hosted an Advocacy Trainers’ Symposium welcoming advocacy trainers of all levels to share visions about the development of advocacy training, contribute to open discussion around common problems encountered during training and to assist in determining how to further develop the programme of training available.

The event was kick-started with keynote speeches from Timothy Dutton CBE QC and Justice Ann Ainslie-Wallace who spoke about the challenges facing both advocates and advocacy trainers in the 21^st century. A copy of Timothy’s speech can be accessed by clicking here.

We were also pleased to welcome Professor Cheryl Thomas and Martin Griffiths QC who demonstrated the pilot Ethics course being rolled out at Inner Temple in their keynote: New View of Teaching Ethics. The training utilises new software which allows those in attendance to provide an immediate reaction to the ethical scenarios being proposed.

In addition, we held breakout sessions facilitating discussion on the subjects of:

Case Analysis
Advanced Advocacy Training
Peer Review
Submissions Advocacy
Skeleton Arguments
International Training
Facilitating Advocacy Training
Preparing Exercises
Direct/Video Review
Technology in Teaching

Our experienced panel members led discussions with participants on what challenges face those running advocacy training and how best these challenges could be overcome. A number of key action points have arisen from the sessions and the Symposium Working Group will be producing a report on the proposals in due course.

The ICCA would like to express its sincere thanks to:

Our keynote speakers, session panellists and Working Group for their hard work in bringing the Symposium together
Everyone who attended and contributed to the discussions, particularly those who travelled from further afield
The Inns and Circuits for supporting the Symposium, and in particular Lincoln’s Inn for providing the venue
The Australian Advocacy Institute for facilitating the attendance of Justice Ann Ainslie-Wallace.

Expert Evidence Training Conferences 2018-19

The ICCA will be hosting three one-day conferences on the handling of expert witnesses, the syllabus for which has been created in consultation with a number of Specialists Bar Associations (SBAs).

The conferences comprise practical training based on case studies in two specialist areas; the programme includes case analysis, lectures, and cross-examination with real experts. It is suitable for Practitioners over 5 years’ call.

Read more here

Revised 20 Principles

A revised ‘20 Principles’ document is now available on the ICCA website. The main thrust of the guidance has not changed but the document has been simplified and better explanations provided.

In due course the revised version will be sent to every delegate who has undertaken the training. We are in the process of updating references in the accompanying training materials.

Review of the Hampel Method

The Inns and circuits have for very many years been involved in helping pupils and young advocates develop their advocacy skills – particularly oral advocacy. For the last 25 years training has followed a structured method of teaching referred to colloquially as “The Hampel Method“ and this has been largely unchanged and unchallenged as the leading method of advocacy training since its introduction. The demands for training have increased and more advanced and specialist courses are increasingly being introduced.