Being a ‘solicitor advocate’

Criminal law, Andrew Tiedt says, is an incredibly challenging but also rewarding practice area – and, increasingly, he sees opportunities for practitioners to be advocates in jury trials and utilise their extensive skill sets. In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy welcomes back J Sutton Associates director Andrew Tiedt, an accredited specialist in criminal law, to discuss why the practice of criminal law is so stimulating, the extent to which being advocate is the remit of barristers only (and whether any lawyer can be an advocate for their clients), why he describes himself as a “solicitor advocate”, and if other criminal lawyers are self-identifying as such. Mr Tiedt also reflects on how and why he became a practitioner who runs many of his own jury trials rather than briefing out, whether trial advocacy is something that more practitioners can aspire to, whether moving to the bar is for him, how practitioners can develop the requisite skills to be better advocates, how colleagues respond to him calling himself a “solicitor advocate”, movement away from adversarial practices, and the need or otherwise for more open-mindedness when it comes to our understandings of advocacy. If you like this episode, show your support by rating us or leaving a review on Apple Podcasts (The Lawyers Weekly Show) and by following Lawyers Weekly on social media: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. If you have any questions about what you heard today, any topics of interest you have in mind, or if you'd like to lend your voice to the show, email editor@lawyersweekly.com.au for more insights!