Training is one of the most valuable benefit I can get from my internship. Usually, we have two lunch-time training sessions every week (each time about one hour and half), focusing on drafting and translating skills respectively.  We also have a relative longer training session every month for work-related practical topics. Typical example are discussion on Company Law and seminar on due diligence.

Today I attend a monthly training workshop on legal presentation. The international training manner of the firm presented to us many hands-on skills to deliver an excellent presentation, from how to communicate with body language to the appropriate ways to use visual aids. The session lasted about three hours and were held in a extremely interactive manner. Participants were required to fully involved in the various practical activities, including a 5-minute mock presentation to an audience consisting of partners and senior associates. At the end of the session, each presenter was given individual feedback on his/her performance. Even during the break, a tricky assignment was given to a selection of participants to practise their presentation skills. (So people will have only a limited time to prepare to asees their ture presentation ability.)

Among the various skills taught during the session, “establishing creditability” worths mentioning. “Establishing creditability”  means when you present to your audience, you have to justify yourself by answering the question: why it is you who are standing on the podium, not the audience. A brief introduction of your expertise will help improve your creditability among your audience. This can be done during the introduction part when you just finishes introducing yourself. You tell your audience your past experiences in a specific area and assure people that they get the right person to talk. Interestingly, during my mock presentation on “risk management in a law firm”, I said, for the sake of practising what I had just learned, “I have a expertise of risk management in various industries for more than a decade and I would like to share with you my experience and lessons” and I did act quite like a senior expert. During the assessment, an associate said she nearly believed I was really an expert during the first few minutes of my presentation and this made her really focus on what I was talking (Actually I was talking nonsense, jokingly). Perhaps I do have an talent for being an actor. (The more possible reason might be I acted two plays during Mr. Clayton’s Legal English course and various others during undergraduate.)

Some other useful skills in presentation:

• using pause effectively to control your delivery
• avoiding conflict between words spoken and body languages
• establishing eye contact with EACH person in the room or, in other words, spread your love among everyone

July 6, 2009

1. Outlook and time management

July 4-5, 2009

1. WTO case done

2. riot in Xinjiang

July 3, 2009

1. find a important literature

2. swimming really makes you relaxed

July 1 – July 2, 2009

1. happy b’day to the Party

2. reunion of the Zhu’s

June 30, 2009

1. really bad traffic in Pudong

2. how to integrate Twitter with Sapce?