 Emma Brown, one of two British Pegasus Trust Scholars visiting the United States this year
for a first-hand study of the American legal system, arrived in Dallas, Texas on March 4, 2000. A
member of the Middle Temple, Ms. Brown received her law degree from Fitzwilliam College in
Cambridge, where she won the moot court competition. She has been a practicing barrister since she
was called to Bar in 1995 and focuses her practice on the areas of medical negligence, healthcare,
personal injury, criminal law and the law of costs.
During her three-month stay in Dallas, Ms. Brown is being hosted by the William "Mac" Taylor Jr. American Inn of Court. The Inn has had the privilege of coordinating opportunities for Ms. Brown to act as both an observer and participant in a broad spectrum of legal settings and activities designed to offer realistic insights into the nature of the judicial system and legal practice in the United States. After completing her first month of study, Ms. Brown has already spent considerable time observing and working with several member attorneys in diverse practice areas. This has enabled her to attend a criminal robbery trial in a federal district court in Fort Worth, a nursing home negligence trial in a Dallas state district court, and a Markman hearing to determine the meaning of patent claims in an intellectual property case. Additionally, she has observed various criminal proceedings in state court and studied firsthand the criminal sentencing process in federal court. Outside of the courtroom, Ms. Brown has had occasion to observe civil depositions, participate in a mediation, and try |
her hand at drafting a summary judgment brief. She has also attended lectures at Southern Methodist University School of Law, judged a round of the law school's annual moot court competition, and observed a naturalization ceremony conducted by the Chief Judge for the Northern District of Texas. And, of course, she has attended meetings of each of the three Inns of Court located in the Dallas/Fort Worth area: the Mac Taylor AIC, the Patrick E. Higginbotham AIC and the Eldon Mahon AIC. At present, she looks forward to spending time in the chambers of a federal magistrate judge, observing activities at the U.S. Attorney's Office, and traveling to other Texas venues to examine regional differences. What differences has she found most striking in comparing the judicial systems of the United States and the United Kingdom? "It is a matter of different legal cultures," Ms. Brown explained at the Mac Taylor Inn's April meeting. "The American system is decidedly more adversarial, with an emphasis on written advocacy, whereas a British barrister primarily serves the role of an oral advocate. As a corrollary, the judge plays a far less active role in the U.S.; British judges are much more inquisitorial--and there are no juries in civil cases." The American jury system holds a particularly strong interest for Ms. Brown. She plans to write and publish an article on jury selection and voir dire, which finds no counterpart in the British system. "The U.K. is about to incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic law, which may affect the jury selection procedure. There may be legal challenge to whether the 'random' jury guaranteed by the British system is also an 'impartial' one as required by the Convention, and therefore the U.S. system of attempting to secure impartiality is interesting." Ms. Brown intends to explore the implications of these and related issues in her article.Another significant contrast between the two legal systems, Ms. Brown noted, concerns the use of contingency fees: "The concept of permitting |