Criminal Law
Criminal Trial Workshop
October 5th
Glasgow
Criminal Trial Workshop
October 5th
2 - 5pm
Speakers: Peter Galletly, Claire Nicholls
Many Newly Qualified Solicitors and Trainees will have had limited opportunity to enhance their court skills since leaving University and therefore may lack some confidence, experience and understanding of common legal concepts when they finally make their way into court.
This workshop has been designed to bridge the gap and provide a platform to practice your skills in an optional ‘Mock Trial’ environment which will centre on an examination of the case of PF v Charles Mackintosh – a case adapted from an actual prosecution.
We are pleased to have Claire Nicholls, the Procurator Fiscal who prosecuted the case, in attendance to guide us through the case itself. She will explain what challenges she faced in this case and how she went about preparing the Crown case, dealing particularly with issues of identification and sufficiency of evidence.
The Workshop will be a mixture of Lecture, optional role play at trial and group work around this case which covers many of the key concepts which come into play for daily practitioners.
The event begins at 2pm. Delegate registration is open from 1:30pm.
Peter Galletly has been a criminal defence lawyer for over 35 years, appearing in the criminal courts on a daily basis acting as defence agent at trial, as well as being managing partner of his own firm for 20 years of that time.
After taking a sabbatical about 10 years ago, upon return he worked as a Procurator Fiscal for a couple of years before returning to defence work as a freelance defence agent, work which he continues to undertake.
He has also been a tutor at Glasgow University's Diploma in Legal Practice since 2010, and tutor in Criminal Law, Commercial Awareness, and Advanced Criminal Law.
In 2017 Peter became Senior Tutor in the Advanced Criminal Law course at Glasgow.
He also tutored earlier this year in a Business Management course in Strathclyde University's Diploma in Legal Practice.
Claire Nicholls worked as a paralegal for a criminal defence firm in Glasgow before going to work for COPFS. During that time she studied law in the evenings whilst still working full time. She then did her traineeship with COPFS commencing in 2013.
After qualifying as a Solicitor in 2015 she remained with COPFS as a Procurator Fiscal Depute and has worked in Airdrie, Hamilton, Paisley, Greenock and Dumbarton. She has a number of years experience prosecuting summary trials and presently works in the solemn team at Dumbarton conducting Sheriff and Jury trials.
Having recent experience as a trainee and then newly qualified solicitor she is aware of the issues faced by those commencing a career in criminal advocacy.
