Baptism of fire: my first criminal trial

It was a blisteringly hot afternoon at the tail end of my pupillage in ’00. I was staring into space and imagining my glorious debut in court – when the phone rang.

On the other end was a clerk from a small local solicitors’ firm, who asked, with alarming nonchalance, whether I could defend a robbery trial at Sha Tin Magistrates’ Court the following week.

I said yes immediately – with a brief hesitation revealing that it would be my first criminal trial in the hope that honesty would not cost me the case.