1/7 This is a short thread to list out small truths I have learnt about #advocacy over the last 11 years. I hope this is of some use to law students who want to litigate. It is said, often glibly, that the life of law is experience, not logic. This can have different meanings.

2/7 Experience as a litigator advocating for propositions of law before courts has slowly taught me at least the following things.

3/7 Firstly, one learns that courts both have power of their own and limit the power of others. To advocate well to a court, one must acknowledge that it has power over your client. Your job as an advocate, then, is to convince the court to exercise its power a certain way.

4/7 - Secondly, judges have instincts about what the law is and what the truth is. Their truth and instincts are real to them. An advocate who hopes to convince the court of a different truth, must do so tactfully. Good advocates convince the court with the least friction.

5/7 Thirdly, judges like to pretend they are rational and logical. But mostly, they tend to arrive at decisions first and rationalize them later. Good advocacy then, helps to sway a judge first emotionally, and then lays down the easiest logical route to support that emotion.

6/7 Fourthly, you know starting out that some of your cases are hopeless ones. Your job in these cases is then, not to secure an impossible win using dishonourable means. It is to make traction. To move the judge a little now, so that he may perhaps be moved further another day.

7/7 Fifthly, judges are human. They like praise when they do things right. They dislike being told they are getting things wrong. A good advocate helps judges realize when they make mistakes, but to the best extent possible, doesn't let the world know that the judge has erred.