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Being mindful of junior practitioners in the courtroom
For three Victorian judicial officers, there is a juggle between making sure the job is done and creating a healthy space for junior practitioners to improve their confidence and advocacy skills.
Naomi Neilson
Expanding on her thoughts and experiences of impostor syndrome at the 2024 Minds Count Lecture, Justice Mary-Jane Ierodiaconou said she has developed a number of everyday tools to ensure junior practitioners walk away with a positive and productive experience.
Justice Ierodiaconou added she also ensures she steers clear of some behaviours, such as setting deadlines in the first week of January, “because I know that means someone’s going to be working” throughout the holiday period in the lead-up.
“[It’s also about] thinking mindfully about the people who might be appearing before me – and who might be very junior – especially on a Friday, and on how they are going to go into the weekend if they are not performing well. How can I run this hearing in a way that leaves them in a place where they might think ‘what have I learned from today’, rather than ‘I’m hopeless’,” Justice Ierodiaconou said.
For Victorian Magistrate Andrew Sim, there is more of a juggle in ensuring these junior practitioners can have that healthy experience while also securing a resolution for vulnerable clients.
For example, Sim said he spent last year’s King’s birthday weekend working on nine contested bail applications with junior practitioners, but he had to remain mindful not to “cut the wind out of their sails”.
“You want to give them space where they can develop their advocacy skills, but if you have the gist of where they’re going, and you think you have a fair idea that you’re likely to grant bail, you might need to shepherd them into particular questions to try and prompt them along because there are three, four bail applications pending and very vulnerable people,” Sim said.
He said this can be a challenge because, much like his own days as a junior practitioner, the Magistrates Court is a space where these lawyers can “cut their teeth” and develop their skills.
“You want them to feel that they can come into the courtroom and they can feel they can develop their submissions, but you’ve also got a clock sitting up there, and you’ve got to do X number of outstanding cases, and a bench clerk that has been working all day.
“It’s a hard juggle sometimes,” Sim said.
County Court of Victoria’s Judge Frank Gucciardo, who shared the panel with Justice Ierodiaconou and Sim, recalled moments early in his career when colleagues would “ritually throw up” before the court and expected to be “mauled” by the judges they advocated before.
“If I could speak for my colleagues just this time, I would say that the vast majority of judges today would be perfectly understanding of those nerves and that sense of both excitement and terror.
“I’m hoping that young advocates who cross the street tomorrow do not expect to be mauled, but expect to be respected, assisted, and also told their assistance is important to the bench,” he said.
Justice Ierodiaconou shared it was equally as important to create this culture of trust within the court’s staff because, without it, “people won’t trust their leaders, then they won’t own up to mistakes, and then there starts to be ethical issues around covering up”.
“We know the one common factor for high-performance teams is creating a culture of trust,” Justice Ierodiaconou said.
“People need to be able to own up to their mistakes and learn from them, so you need to be able to give feedback in a way that is constructive rather than destructive.”
The panel followed a speech from High Court Justice Jacqueline Gleeson, who shared that by hiding vulnerabilities, senior judges have given junior practitioners the impression they are the only ones who may be dealing with self-doubt and impostor syndrome.
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
You can email Naomi at:
