Introduction

I have a practice in the High Court and other forums. I feel like an outsider when

I go to the Supreme Court with a matter.

I think Supreme Court practice requires some superior degree of knowledge and
acumen and it is not my cup of tea.

I look forward to practicing in the Supreme Court someday. But I do not know how to do it.

I do not read enough judgments to have the required knowledge to practice in the Supreme Court.

I think I am too old or too young to start practicing in the Supreme Court

I practice in another city. I do not know how to start practicing in the Supreme Court.

I have clients who have matters in the Supreme Court. I do not know how to retain them.

I am getting a few matters in the Supreme Court, but how do I grow this work further?

What would it take for me to become an Advocate-on-Record? Do I have to go to Delhi and start figuring this out from scratch?

How can I prepare for the advocate-on-record exam?

If these questions come to your mind or resonate with you, you are at the right place.

We have solutions to all these questions. This is India’s one and only course where we train lawyers to develop a Supreme Court practice.

The best part about Supreme Court practice is that every bit of knowledge and experience you have gained in the trial court and/or the High Court or any other forum comes handy when you are handling matters in the Supreme Court.

You get to put to use all your strengths only if you know how and where to use them. 

Litigation in the Supreme Court has a place for everybody. 

There are lawyers who are good at getting the job done: they know whom to engage, when to engage, where to get the drafting done and they may earn more than many designated Senior Advocates. 

There are others who draft well. There are those who are good arguing counsels and are engaged for putting the points together in a manner that nobody else can.

There are those who just act as advocate-on-record and play a very limited role.

There are some all-rounders. There are many outstation lawyers who do matters in the Supreme Court once in a while. The Supreme Court has space for all of them.

We have designed a course that gives you an opportunity to develop your own USP with the help of meticulously designed exercises so that you can find your space in this universe. 

Our course will provide you an insight into the Supreme Court practice and train you using a hands-on approach that emulates the training you would otherwise have to receive in a senior’s chamber by apprenticing for years. 

In this course we will hone your research, drafting, and arguing skills specifically for Supreme Court practice. Beside that, we will also guide you on how to deal with day-to-day practical challenges you will face, and how to grow your practice and profile. 

We will impart a holistic training so that you feel at ease while walking down the corridors of the Supreme Court. 

It is important to note that this course exhaustively covers all the four papers of the Advocate-on-Record examination and will provide you with all possible templates and practice sessions with feedback to help you crack the examination. 

Those appearing for the Advocate-on-Record examination in June 2021 can also apply and benefit from this course.

Things you would want to learn before starting your practice at the Supreme Court

• Thorough knowledge of practice and procedure followed in the Supreme Court
• How Registry functions
• Comparative knowledge of the applicability of various jurisdictions
• Different methods of quick and effective research required for Supreme Court litigation
• Sound knowledge of what works and what does not
• Ability to analyze the chances of success and advise clients
• Standards & parameters to draft persuasive petitions/appeals
• Drafting and arguing skills and court craft
• Strategizing and preparing for arguments
• Briefing a Senior Advocate
• Case management and client counseling
• How to go about developing a Supreme Court practice
• Professional conduct, etiquettes & soft skills peculiar to the Supreme Court

Who should take this course

• Independent practitioners who want to brief lawyers in Supreme Court matters
• Lawyers who want to crack the Advocate-on-Record exam and build a practice in Supreme Court
• Those who want to argue before the Supreme Court as arguing counsel
• Those who are aiming to work as junior to well-known senior advocates
• In-house counsels of big companies (which frequently litigate in the Supreme Court)
• Lawyers in disputes teams of law firms if they have to take up Supreme Court matters
• Law students who want to intern in chambers of Advocate-on-Record and develop early exposure to Supreme Court work

What career options will open up for you after this course

• Whether you have an independent practice in any part of India or you are working as a lawyer in the disputes team of a law firm, learning Supreme Court work will be useful for you when it comes to the most important cases of your life.
• You’ll be trained in a manner that you can develop a full-fledged Supreme Court practice. You may be a fresher, working at a law firm, in-house counsel, or practicing in the High Court of any State, district courts, or any other forum, it’s never too late nor too early to move your practice to the Supreme Court. Everyone has some opportunity though the scope may vary.
• You’ll be able to advise clients on when and how they can approach the Supreme Court. Thus, you won’t lose your client when they want to file an appeal or an SLP before the Supreme Court or when the other party does it. 
• Think of your best and largest clients - you may be handling their matters regularly. You already have an edge over other counsels. You know the matter inside out and the client trusts you at least to the extent that you know the matter. They would be more comfortable with you than with any other lawyer. Therefore, there’s no reason why you should let this opportunity go by referring them to a ‘Supreme Court lawyer’. That’s because there’s no such thing as a ‘Supreme Court lawyer’. Either there are Advocate-on-record or there are Senior Advocates. Rest of them are just advocates handling Supreme Court matters and you can be one of them. This course will help to bridge the gap and equip you to handle Supreme Court matters all by yourself.
• Supreme Court practice is one of its kind that gives you an opportunity to do what you know the best and delegate the rest of the work if you want. An Advocate-on-record can be engaged only for the purpose of filing a petition while the counsel handling the matter below may take care of the rest. If you are an Advocate-on-record, you get to charge 15K just for filing. This course equips you to handle all aspects of drafting, filing and arguing matters in the Supreme Court. 
• Many lawyers start practicing in the Supreme Court straight after college as a junior to an Advocate-on-record or Senior Advocate. But they don’t have exposure on trial court work. The focus is just on getting the work done on time. They don’t get time to learn, and develop the skills required to do their work more effectively. Compared to these lawyers, you will be in a far superior position after doing this course.
• There are lawyers with a practice in a different forum and have some exposure on handling Supreme Court matters. But they do not get to attend and observe the proceedings of the Supreme Court regularly to know what works and what does not. This course helps to bridge the gap for both sets of lawyers by working on all the skills required for a successful practice in the Supreme Court. 
• By the end of the course, you’ll be able to strategize, identify grounds and prepare an effective draft without the need to engage anyone else for drafting. You can also brief senior counsels effectively. The advantage of a practice with different lawyers playing different roles is that you can charge well for the part of the job you do the best. This course helps you identify what you do best and further strengthen it.
• You’ll be conversant with drafting Supreme Court petitions effectively. It means that if you are an in-house counsel, you’ll be able to review drafts prepared by Advocate-on-record for your client/ company effectively and can easily impress people with your knowledge of how things work in the Supreme Court.
• This course will also train you to crack the Advocate-on-Record examination by exhaustively covering all the four papers: Practice & Procedure, Drafting, Advocacy & Professional Ethics and Leading Cases. 
• We’ll also have practice sessions and you’ll get feedback on your answers to question papers of the previous years. Those appearing for the Advocate-on-record examination in June 2021 will find it fruitful because they get to complete their entire preparation before the examination.
• You’ll be equipped to handle the filing at the Registry and matters before the Registrar’s court. While many lawyers practising in the Supreme Court for years themselves do not know how matters are filed, it is a basic requirement for an Advocate-on-Record, something that everyone expects you to know the moment you become an Advocate-on-Record. So you’ll not just be prepared to take the Advocate-on-Record examination, you also get trained in doing your job even before becoming an Advocate-on-Record.

Potential Employers

• Law chambers
• Law firms
• In-house legal departments
• Government
• Self-employment

What is unique about this course

• Focus on experiential learning as opposed to a theoretical approach
• It will give you practical exposure that comes through rigorous training and experience
• Learn drafting every possible petition, appeal, plaint, counter-affidavit, and applications filed before the Supreme Court using a hands-on approach with the help of exercises specially designed to train and hone your research and drafting skills.
• Master the art of arguing before the Supreme Court with the help of roleplay & simulation exercises.
• This is an intensive course designed to rigorously work on your blocks and barriers, take you out of your comfort zone, and work exactly in areas where there’s a scope to improve and excel.
• Special sessions by designated Senior Advocates and other experts in the field.

Recruitment and Growth Support

• We will share with you vacancies available in chambers of Advocates-on-Record and Supreme Court Advocates
• Our Placement Office will help you to prepare your CV and train you for interviews
• We often refer clients to our top students from our large referral network of thousands of clients and lawyers across the country
• We do not guarantee that we will provide you with any clients or jobs, we only assist you in the process and the final results will depend a great deal upon your own initiatives, learning and consistency of effort.

Money Back Guarantee

If you take this course, follow it diligently for a month, do all the exercises but still do not find value in it, or not able to understand or follow it or not find it good for any reason, we will refund the entire course fee to you. It is a 100% money back guarantee with only one condition, you must pursue it properly for a month. If you don’t find it valuable after that, get your entire money back.

View Refund Policy

Training Methodology

Online 24/7 access

Access to basic study material through online learning management system, Android and iOS app

Hard Copy Study Material

Hard copy study material modules to be couriered to your address

Practical Exercises

2 practical exercises every week, followed by written feedback

Live Online Classes

Based on the exercises, there will be a live video based online class. You can ask questions, share your screen, get personal feedback in this class.

Convenient Class timings

Classes are held after regular work hours. Typically classes are kept on Sunday afternoon or 8-9 pm on other days.

Live Doubt Clearing

You can ask questions, get your doubt cleared live as well as through online forums

Areas in which we will help you to develop knowledge and skills

• Applicability of various jurisdictions
• Research
• Drafting petitions persuasively
• Preparing for arguments
• Briefing a Senior
• Arguing effectively
• Court craft
• Practice & Procedure
• Functioning of Registry
• Client and case management
• Professional conduct, etiquettes & soft skills for Supreme Court lawyers
• Practice development

Specific Learning Objectives

How to read and analyze an impugned order

• Learn to skim through an Impugned Order marking the territory of facts, evidence in criminal matters, submissions and findings.
• Learn to scan through an Impugned Order with the objective of identifying grounds, looking for how the High Court erred or failed to consider legally relevant aspects.
• Learn to identify and distinguish questions of law from questions of facts.
• Learn to identify the research points quickly and to ensure it is exhaustive in nature.
• Explore different kinds of research tools and define your approach to research so that each time you are confronted with a legal problem, you simply follow those steps to find answers. 
• Understand the factors that determine how you approach a legal issue and where you begin your research.
• Devise methods to ensure that your research is exhaustive and you achieve the highest quality of research in every case you work on.
• Learn and practice dealing with upsets and dead ends successfully during research.
• Learn to identify relevant key-words and legal propositions while researching on different online/offline legal databases.

What to cite? How much to cite?

• Learn to skim and scan through judgments and quickly find what you need.
• Learn to examine the relevance of a judgment, whether wholly or in parts, connecting with or distinguishing from the facts of the present case.
• Develop an understanding of the various stages of litigation leading to the passing of the Impugned Order / Judgement.
• Learn to cull out the 'settled law' relating to an issue and express it effectively in a petition or before a judge so that even when you paraphrase what you have read, the meaning is not lost 
• Learn to use/refer a part of a judgment in the pleadings in a manner that would have the maximum impact, know which part of a judgment to quote, decide on whether to quote or not
• Learn to understand contextual interpretations of judgments delivered by the Supreme Court to avoid using judgments out of context.
• Learn to differentiate between ratio decidendi and obiter dicta while reading a judgement and cite settled position of law accordingly.

Devising different strategies for different kinds of petitions

• Learn to draft various petitions, appeals, suit and applications filed before the Supreme Court using hands-on approach 
• Hone drafting skills keeping in mind the following aspects:
  • Maintainability
  • Making the ingredients evident in the course of narrating the facts and stating the grounds
  • Understanding what would constitute material facts for a petition or appeal before the Supreme Court
  • Appreciating the possibility of experimenting with ideas and language

What to plead? How to plead?

• Devising strategies and preparing a set of grounds that work and those that can be made to work
• How to plead facts and circumstances
• Understand the facts and circumstances under which cases get decided in favour so that you may remember to plead them when they apply to you
• Learn to use precise and accurate words with crisp language having legal significance, as used in authoritative texts.
• Develop an understanding of the nature of fundamental rights while drafting the writ petition.
• Understand how to bring out the violation of the fundamental right(s) in a manner and/or mould the relief sought to bring the case within the purview of Article 32 without the requirement of exhausting alternate remedy under Article 226.

How to prepare for hearings

• Is the way we argue before the Supreme Court any different from other courts? Questions of law vis-a-vis questions of fact
• Learn how to brief a Senior Advocate. We’ll do lots of roleplay simulation exercises
• Learn to prepare notes for a Senior Advocate or for the purpose of briefing and arguing cases
• Learn to differentiate the requirements and prepare for arguments keeping in mind the stage (notice/post-notice/final disposal) and nature (miscellaneous/regular) of hearing
• Understand the factors that determine the content of oral arguments and how much to emphasise on a point. How do you decide at different stages? Again, we’ll do enough simulation exercises for you to get it
• Understand when to stop and why and how to come back to a point at a later stage, if need be 
• Learn to use storytelling as a skill during arguments

Written Submissions

• Understand the purpose of filing Written Submissions/Convenience Note/Volume before the Supreme Court. When to file it
• Learn how to structure your Written Submissions and differentiate it from the structure of the petition
• Learn the usage of brief and concise language without losing persuasiveness and differentiate it with the language used in drafting the grounds of the petition
• Find out the blunders people make while drafting Written Submissions and learn how to avoid them

Issuance of notice by Supreme Court: is it sheer luck?

• An SLP may get dismissed and the file thrown away even before you get to blink your eye. Understanding the factors/hurdles/challenges involved in the issuance of notice by the Supreme Court and learn how to face them while drafting a petition to ensure notice is issued.
• Understanding the thin line between a good draft and a not-so-good draft from the context of getting notice issued.
• Learning how to present your case at the notice stage keeping the challenges in mind and differentiating it from the post-notice stage arguments. We’ll do roleplay simulation exercises.
• How different is it to get a notice issued by the Supreme Court than in any other High Court

List of Weekly Exercises

• Case-law research: find precedents on a given problem case with the help of questions meant to give a structure to your research
• Use a given judgment in the facts of a problem case
• Read a given High Court Order with the help of questions meant to help you identify the different aspects of an Impugned Order
• Draft Original Suit
• Draft Writ Petition: Civil 
• Draft Writ Petition: Criminal
• Draft Writ Petition: Habeas Corpus
• Draft Writ Petition: Mandamus
• Draft Writ Petition: Commercial
• Draft SLP: Civil
• Draft SLP: Criminal arising from orders of different authorities under various statutes 
• Draft Appeal: Criminal Appeal under the Supreme Court (Enlargement of Jurisdiction) Act 
• Draft Appeal: Appeal under NCLAT 
• Draft Appeal: Appeal under NCDRC
• Draft Transfer Petition: Civil 
• Draft Transfer Petition: Criminal
• Draft Written Submissions/Convenience Note
• Draft Contempt Petition: Civil
• Draft Contempt Petition: Criminal
• Draft an Arbitration Petition
• Draft Review Petition
• Draft Curative Petition
• Draft Counter-Affidavit
• Draft Interlocutory Applications
• Draft Written Submissions/Convenience Note
• Electronic filing preparation and practice
• Review your existing draft (of any petition) and preemptively address any hurdles or objections that may arise at the time of notice  
• Prepare notes for arguments to be used by you
• Prepare notes for arguments for Senior Advocate
• Role-play simulations for briefing and the argument stage
• Brainstorming sessions and questions to provoke original ideas for professional ethics and leading cases modules 
• Practice question banks for professional ethics and leading cases based on previous years’ question papers and current syllabus (with evaluations and feedback)