Media training for barristers – five top tips

Why are our media training courses for barristers increasingly popular? It’s probably for a number of reasons. The media will always want to talk to barristers. This is because journalists are looking for credible, knowledgeable interviewees who will provide useful information and add to the authority of their reports.

On the other side of the equation a growing number of barristers are realising that media training for barristers’ chambers is essential to ensure that they give a good performance – and remain in control of the interview.

As the main provider of media training for barristers, we talk to clerks and others who point out that, unlike corporations, they don’t have press offices. Usually, they lack a PR company to handle enquiries from journalists and to do the deals with journalists required for a successful interview.

So, if you’re a barrister asking yourself, “How can barristers do good media interviews?” here are five things that you should bear in mind.

1. Know your audience

The main reason why any kind of communication fails is because the communicator doesn’t think about the people that they’re communicating with. In our media training courses for barristers, we encourage participants to focus on the particular media outlet that they’re talking to. Is it, for instance, the Daily Mail, the Today programme or Times Radio? Similarly, you might find yourself talking to the FT, The Lawyer or the Manchester Evening News. 

The messages you put across and the examples and stories that you use to illustrate them will all depend on the audience. You’ll also have to think about language. There may well be words and phrases that work in court that won’t land with general audiences. Even if they work out what you mean, you’re literally not speaking their language and so you’ve erected a barrier between you.

2. Define your message 

You wouldn’t go into court without knowing the key points that you want to put to the jury or a judge. The same is true when you’re talking to a journalist. We know, because we work with them extensively, that barristers like to be in control. One of the best ways of maintaining control of a media interview is to be clear on your key message and to stick to it.

That said, if your message doesn’t resonate with the audience then it’s wasted. You need to ensure that what you’re telling the journalist is relevant to their readers, listeners or viewers. 

However, you could give the journalist lots of useful information which works very well for them and their readers, listeners or viewers. But this information might not be helpful to you.

In our media training workshops for barristers we provide templates and techniques to help barrister to prepare in a way that will enable them to connect with their audiences while also putting across key messages.

3. Introduce examples

Examples, case studies, stories and even simple anecdotes are gold for journalists. They also work well for you as the interviewee. They illustrate what you’re saying and they prove your points. After all, how many times in our daily lives do we say, “For instance…” or “Just imagine…”.

In our media training for barristers, our media trainers who are also working journalists (operating under strict non-disclosure agreements) will often ask for an example to illustrate or prove a point. 

Because we are the specialist provider for media training for lawyers, we know that giving examples can be risky. However, there are various ways in which you can provide a case study or a story without compromising client confidentiality.

We provide a range of preparation techniques during our media training courses for barristers’ chambers. As part of this we help the participants on our courses to be ready to give examples in a clear and concise that way won’t identify or offend any of their clients.

4. Take the initiative

We know that often barristers and other lawyers need to keep their answers as short as possible to avoid making themselves hostage to fortune or opening up the risk of further difficult questioning.

This approach is entirely understandable in a legal context. But it doesn’t work well when you’re doing an interview with a journalist.

Often at the start of our media training courses for barristers the participants will give short answers during the role play media interviews. Another reason for this brevity is that barristers are under the impression that it’s the journalist who will be driving the interview. Their job, as the interviewee, is simply to answer their questions.

However, we point out that as a barrister you will almost always know more about the issue than the journalist will. As we move onto the subsequent set of practice interviews the participants on these media training workshops for barristers will begin to realise that they can take the initiative. 

They can set out their stall and deliver their key message right at the start of the interview and take more control. Not only does this allow them to make more of the opportunity to promote their knowledge and their chambers but it also reduces the chances of the journalist asking some difficult or irrelevant questions.

As working journalists, our media trainers will tell you that it’s when an interviewee is not giving them anything interesting and relevant that they’ll look to make some mischief just to get a story. 

Taking the initiative during media interviews can help prevent this.

5. Prepare for difficult questions 

One of the things that puts barristers off doing media interviews, we often hear, is the risk of finding themselves being put on the spot with difficult questions. This is ironic, of course, given that managing difficult questions is something they do regularly in court.

Perhaps the fear is based on that idea of being out of control again. Maintaining control of the media interview is something that we focus on during our media training for barristers.

Just as you would prepare for a case, you need to prepare for a media interview. We have a number of quick, practical preparation techniques for barristers doing media interviews. 

These include identifying difficult or left field questions and finding ways to handle them. We can enable you, as the interviewee to get back to your key message and regain control of the interview. 

Media Training for Barristers

Come and talk to us about media training for barristers. We’ll create a bespoke course that meets your requirements, time constraints and budget. You can follow us on LinkedIn here.