I have moved pupils’ calls to the bar since 2006, which was when I crossed the seven-year threshold of being senior enough to take a pupil on and move their calls.
I must have moved quite a number in the first couple of years because I reflected on the experience as early as 2008 in a piece titled A Meditation about Moving by an occasional Mover.
Upon reflection, when I wrote that, I was at a high point in my idealism and outlook. That prescription of mine found its fullest expression in the call speech I prepared and delivered for my friend, Aston Paiva, where I interviewed his parents over dinner, and then his friend from university who happened to be Syahredzan Johan, also a lawyer, also over dinner and had extensive conversations with him. It was a great experience but difficult to pull off consistently.
Over the years, I have climbed down considerably from the approach I prescribed there for myself. After about 14 years of crafting call speeches, I have worked out my call speech prep.
I know what information I want from the pupil. I send them a list of 16 – 20 questions for them. I change up the questions every now and again. I tell them to write a lot for their answers. The more they give me, the more I have to work with.
I sift for illustrative quotes from their answers and use them in the call speech. The soon-to-be lawyer’s voice is heard in the courtroom before they appear as an advocate and solicitor in their own right. Their words contrast with mine and keep the speech interesting.
If they tell me that they like a book, movie, song, etc. I will look it up and try to find a quote from it that can liven the speech or reflect or resonates with the pupil.
If I have time, I will invite the pupil over for a chat over tea near my office just to get to know them better. Sometimes I do suss out some useful material from our conversation. But it is mostly to experience what they are like in person. How close or far do they differ in person from the person responding to my questions by email (if I haven’t met them)?
When I first started writing call speeches, it took me about five to six hours to prepare one. And I have never looked back. Since preparing my own call speeches, I have never ever used a standard call speech format. I take the responsibility of preparing a call speech seriously and still do. My desire to make a memorable call speech for each pupil I agree to move hasn’t changed.
The only difference between now and then is that now I can whip up a speech in an hour if I need to.
I said it in 2008, I can still say it in 2022: It is easy to deliver a stand-out call speech because many don’t bother to make the effort. The vast majority go by the call speech format or have the pupils write it for them or as often is the case, both. I once heard a mover mindlessly read out the call speech and end up with the following:
‘The Petitioner would also like to thank his Master, Mr X of ABC & Associates, as well as everyone at the law firm. And finally, the Petitioner would like to thank, the mover of his call, Mr Z, oh, that’s me, Yang Arif The pupil thanks me too! Oh, you’re welcome.’
Truly a face-palm moment. One cannot escape the impression that the mover was reading the speech for the first time while he was on his feet. An uncommon but regular thing.
I still labour with the habit of compulsively revising the draft call speech right up to the point I deliver it. My mind keeps generating ideas about how to make it better. A lot of it is revising sentences to make them as concise as possible. I am removing a word or two here. Putting them back in again. Take one out. Adding a sentence there. Rearranging a few sentences here and there. Nothing major. It’s too late to do anything major by then. But I can’t stop the fuss.
One thing I always try to include in my speeches is a touch of humour. Roaring, thigh-slapping laughter, if possible, but that’s tough. And it’s best I leave that to the professionals.
Humour is also difficult because most times I don’t know who is in the gallery that morning. So humour has to be generally accessible. The humour I intend may not be palpable felt in writing because it is not just about the writing but the delivery as well.
A few chuckles and smiles always liven up the room a little. Get the endorphins flowing kind of thing. Sometimes it has a cascading effect and motivates others to be humourous as well. A touch of humour lifts the serious and dour atmosphere.
If I can eke out a smile from the presiding judge, lawyers or gallery, I count it as a good performance. If I get a laugh out of them, it’s a fist-pump performance. If I don’t even get a smile, it’s a bad one. It doesn’t matter if the pupil thanks me and is happy with it. To me, it’s a miss. That is my own personal KPI.
I have more or less settled on a template that I use for my call speeches now. I don’t always follow it and try to experiment when I am bothered to. It is useful, especially at the end of a long working or weekend day when I am not at my creative best.
Anyway, that structure is more or less as below with a more or less explanation for each section. Each square bracket is its own section. It is up to you how long or short each section is.
[Introduction of the Petitioner, her family, and her hometown]
[What was the Petitioner’s educational background? How did the Petitioner come to study law? Where did she study law? What was her experience like? What were her favourite and abhorred law subjects? Basically, her academic pedigree is discussed]
[If there is something notable about the pupil, discuss it.]
[Discuss three reasons why I think the Petitioner has the requisite good character to be a fit and proper person to be called to the Bar. I would have identified three qualities to discuss and identify some choice sentences or paragraphs to quote from. All of it should not take up more than eight paragraphs.]
[Say something thoughtful]
[Do the thanks. I usually tell the pupils to limit it to family, close friends and partners. I don’t want to spend more than thirty seconds thanking all the Petitioner’s family and friends, especially using their nicknames.]
[The papers are in order. The Bar Council, the State/KL Bar and the Attorney General’s Chambers have no objection. I don’t know why they turn up when section 16(4) of the Legal Profession Act 1976 says it is not necessary for any of these representatives to come if they don’t have an objection to the petition.]
(4) The Attorney General, the Bar Council or the State Committee need not be represented at the hearing of any petition unless the Attorney General, the Bar Council or the State Bar Committee, as the case may be, intends to object to that petition, but no order shall be made upon any petition unless the Court is satisfied that the petition, affidavit and true copies of each document have been duly served as required by subsection (1).
16(4) of the Legal Profession Act 1976
[And anyway, if any of them had an objection, they would have to give written notice pursuant to section 16(2) LPA76. I sometimes like to point out in my call speech how even if the representatives for that morning had an objection, they failed to comply with that provision.]
(2) If the Attorney General, the Bar Council or any State Bar Committee intends to object to any petition, there shall be served on the petitioner and filed in the Registrar’s Office, not less than three clear days or any shorter period as the Court may allow before the date fixed for hearing the petition, a notice of objection which shall set out in brief terms the grounds of objection.
16(2) of the Legal Profession Act 1976
[Once a written notice of objection is made, the court will not fix it for a call but for a hearing within a month. So an objected petition will not be called together with the petitions not objected to.]
(3) On a notice of objection being filed the petition shall be fixed for hearing within one month or as soon as may be before a Judge of the High Court.
16(3) of the Legal Profession Act 1976
The other reason for this post is to announce the Call Speech series. From next week onwards, every Wednesday, I will publish the call speeches I delivered. I don’t know how long the series will go because I don’t recall how many speeches I wrote. I compiled those I discovered scattered across a variety of places and thought to put them together.
I thought it would be good fun to share them. Most of them are in their final printed state. That is never the final delivered version in court. So please appreciate what I publish is an approximation. It wasn’t a habit of mine then to save the edited hard copy of the speech. Once done, I usually dispose of it if the pupil did not request to keep it. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I have writing them.
