In 1980, a number of legal luminaries — amongst them Sir Hartog Berkeley QC, Federal Court Chief Justice Michael Black and The Honourable Professor George Hampel QC — assisted in the Bar Council’s establishment of the first mandatory preparatory course for the Victorian Bar.

The Bar Readers’ Course was the first of its kind in Australia, and has been widely recognised for the dedication which its many instructors, assessors and students have shown over the years to the refinement of their craft.

As the course prepared to turn thirty, Professor Hampel, Ian Freckleton SC, and current Chairman of the Readers’ Course Committee Ian Hill QC sat down to discuss what they see as the future direction of the Readers’ Course. Their conversation is recorded in the most recent edition of the Victorian Bar News in Readers’ Course revisited, and their observations about the changing nature of advocacy in the modern court are of relevance to all legal practitioners.