Conference Skills and Client Interviewing
Conference Skills and Client Interviewing tests whether you can obtain instructions, advise realistically and record the outcome. The examiner watches structure, questioning and ethical awareness as much as legal knowledge.
Core rules
- Prepare from the papers: identify the client's objective, the legal issues, missing information and any immediate risk such as limitation or arrest.
- Begin with open questions, then funnel to focused questions. Use active listening and summarise to check understanding.
- Advise on options, not just the 'right' answer: prospects, costs, risks, delay and alternative dispute resolution.
- Confirm authority and instructions. If the client is a company or lacks capacity, check who can instruct and whether a litigation friend is needed.
- Keep a note of advice given and instructions received. Do not give an undertaking or make a promise outside your control.
- If the client proposes a false account or an improper course, address it directly and do not draft or support it.
Worked example
A client says he wants to defend a money claim by denying receipt of a default notice, although he remembers receiving it. He asks counsel to 'just put it in the defence'. Counsel should explain that a statement of case must not be misleading and that a false denial can damage credibility and costs. The proper course is to advise on the real defences: whether the notice complied with the contract, whether the sum is due, and settlement options. If the client insists on the false denial, counsel should decline to act and explain the consequences without disclosing the confidential admission.
Traps
Advising before obtaining the facts; using jargon; failing to check capacity or authority; not summarising instructions; ignoring costs and risks; writing a note that records conclusions but not the client's decisions.
Key points
- Prepare issues and objectives before the conference.
- Use open questions, then focused questioning and summaries.
- Advise on options, costs and risks.
- Confirm authority, capacity and instructions.
- Record advice and decisions accurately.