And in this corner… a well-prepared lawyer

I watched my first live wrestling match last fortnight as a guest in hospitality, which is probably the safest way to begin. Comfortable seat. Good view. Enough distance to observe that everyone else seemed entirely sure when cheering was required.

Simon Allison is like a wrestler, but with fewer spangles and lengthier scripts

The whole show looked remarkably convincing, particularly a wrestler named Jason Reed. Jason looked exactly as a wrestler should look - tall, blond and entirely as though physical confidence had never been a problem. Before the match had even started, he looked prepared. Calm. Focused. As though he had already decided how the evening ought to go. Standing nearby, I had the less dramatic profile of also being tall but slightly greyer than Jason… Still, the comparison between a wrestler and an employment lawyer arrived quickly. Jason did not look like someone hoping instinct would carry him through. He looked like someone who had already done the repetitive part nobody really sees. Training. Rehearsal. Conditioning. The dull work before the interesting work. That is very close to tribunal preparation. From the outside, employment tribunals look as though the hearing is where everything happens. Witnesses arrive. Papers open. Everyone becomes slightly more formal than they were in emails. Usually, though, the important work has happened much earlier. The stronger side in a tribunal often looks calm for exactly the same reason Jason looked calm before the bell. Very little has been left to chance. For me, the awkward email has already been found. Uncomfortable questions have been asked early. The witnesses have also already been told that silence for thirty seconds, when the Judge handwrites everything down, is perfectly acceptable.

One of the quirks of Scottish employment tribunals is that witnesses are still expected to do the dangerous thing of actually speaking for themselves. Exchanging witness statements weeks before the hearing commences – as happens in England – is rare. Witnesses have to explain themselves in real time whilst the Judge, the lawyers and everyone else quietly decides whether their performances look convincing.

I learned last fortnight that, with a wrestling match, not every move arrives at once. Timing matters. Energy matters. The person who wins usually looks as though there was a plan before everyone else noticed. Employment tribunals are similar, although there is less music and nobody enters to applause, unless they have badly misunderstood the setting! Clients are advised that, although each point feels personal, the better litigator decides early on, which points genuinely matter and which ones are better left sitting quietly in the file. The tribunal hearings that go best often look uneventful. Documents appear where they should. Witnesses answer directly. Nobody says anything requiring a hurried adjournment and whispered legal advice in the corridor. That can look simple. It never is. Behind it sits a long stretch of ordinary preparation. In Jason’s case, preparation appears to involve a lot of coffee and a form of eating where carbohydrates are spoken about almost nostalgically. Mine usually involves coloured tabs, an annotated bundle, and the quiet hope that nobody produces a fresh document at 9.14am Jason Reed leaves with a winner’s belt. I usually leave with a file under my arm, the distinct feeling that the most dangerous moment was probably page 214, and behaving as though the witness’s nervous gulp before the difficult answer was entirely invisible.

Simon Allison is Head of Employment, Blackadders