For the past twenty-two years, the Advocates’ Society Journal has played a unique role in legal education in Canada. As a publication dedicated to informing advocates, it has brought together the ideas of leading legal minds to provide experienced and insightful views on both advocacy and advocates. Indeed, the Journal has provided a veritable “how to” for the practice of advocacy before courts and tribunals.\n\nThe twenty-four articles in this volume provide a sampling of the wisdom, the insights, the experience, and the humour that readers have come to expect from the pages of the Journal. The collection includes pieces by past and present justices of the Supreme Court of Canada and the Ontario Court of Appeal as well as several eminent trial lawyers. It covers all aspects of the art of written and oral advocacy in both criminal and civil trials.\n\nThe book is dedicated to the late David Sgayias Q.C., former Chief General Counsel of the Federal Department of Justice, and an outstanding counsel, author, and legal scholar.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgments David Sgayias, Q.C.: An Appreciation - Justice W. Ian Binnie The Importance of Advocacy - The Honourable John D. Arnup, Q.C. The Many Faces of Advocacy - Justice John Sopinka In Praise of Oral Advocacy - Justice W. Ian Binnie The Argument of a Case at Trial - Justice Willian J. Anderson The Conduct of a Non-jury Civil Trial - Justice Willian J. Anderson Oral Advocacy in Matters Argued before Superior Court Judges - Justice Robert A. Blair Advocacy in Jury Trials - John A. McLeish Stranger in a Strange Land: Advocacy Before Administrative Tribunals - David Stockwood, Q.C. Winning Strategies in the Civil Jury Process - Roger G. Oatley and Brennan Kahler Appellate Advocacy - Justice John Sopinka Appellate Advocacy - Justice Sydney L. Robins Forget the Windup and Make the Pitch: Some Suggestions for Writing More Persuasive Factums - Justice John I. Laskin What Persuades (or What's Going On inside the Judge's Mind) - Justice John I. Laskin A Survivor's Guide to Advocacy in the Supreme Court of Canada - Justice Ian Binni Appellate Advocacy in an Abbreviated Setting - Justice George D. Finlayson Advocacy in Jurisprudential Appeals - Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella The Wrong Stuff: How to Lose Appeals in the Court of Appeal - Justice Marvin Catzman The Wrong Stuff: Tip # 8 - Justice Marvin Catzman Losing Tip # 9: Make your Factum Read Like War and Peace - Justice Marvin Catzman Losing Tip # 10: When the Law Is Dead Against You - Justice Marvin Catzman Losing Tip # 11: Distinguishing the Indistinguishable (and a Note on Alphabet Soup) - Justice Marvin Catzman Losing Tip # 13: Never Discard a Hopeless Argument - Justice Marvin Catzman Losing Tip #14: Openers and Closers - Justice Marvin Catzman