no case lost for a stretch of time
Ah! I haven't lost a case in months.National Theatre Live: Prima Facie · 2022 — 第 6 / 22 章 · 4'11" · C1
Sophie Walks the Tightrope, Explained：ethical tightrope
Over sandwiches, a barrister laughs about a pupil who asked a client pleading not guilty whether he "did it." The warning that follows is not about manners. "You're walking an ethical tightrope, Sophie" draws the line: take the instructions, run the case, and never decide the truth yourself. Under the joke sits the whole defence creed.
あらすじ
In a Pret queue, a criminal barrister tells a colleague about a pupil named Sophie. During a client conference the pupil asked a man pleading not guilty if he had done it. The barrister pulled her aside, spelled out the ethical limit, and then, still over lunch, laid out the larger rule: defence does not know, each side tells a story, and the jury chooses.
注目の表現
pick your braina different breedethical tightropetake his instructions
00:00 / 04:11Space 再生 · ← → セリフ移動 · R リピート
いま
このシーンの表現
ethical tightrope
a precarious line in professional ethics
Pulled aside, Sophie is told that question already has her one step off the professional rope.
Hide that complaint and you are walking an ethical tightrope with the auditors.
このシーンの他の表現
- pick your brain
ask to borrow someone's judgement
- a different breed
a wholly different kind of person
- take his instructions
act on the client's account and stop there
- goes in for the kill
move in to finish someone off
- to not know
the task is to stay unknowing
このシーンのメモ一覧
70 行のセリフに 32 件のメモ
practise only in company law
Oh. Solicitors who specialise in company law.a wholly different kind of person
In the lunch queue she files the company lawyers as another species, and it is not praise.
They are a different breed. They're all...trainees who passed through the set chambers is a barristers' set, not a room
We laugh about the previous pupils we've had in chambers.trainee barristers — Bar jargon for trainees; elsewhere it just means schoolchildren.
We laugh about the previous pupils we've had in chambers.recall someone only dimly
I tell him about Sophie. 'Young, new to criminal law.' He vaguely remembers her.formally deny the charge
The client says he wants to plead not guilty,promise you this is not exaggerated
and she says to him, no, I swear to you, she says,Let did you blur, and keep the t light before do.
'But tell me the truth, did you do it?'draw someone aside for a private word
'Hold everything, Sophie.' Take her to one side.what on earth are you doing — A snap of anger; keep it out of public or formal talk.
'What the fuck are you doing?' She's all, 'What? What?'that was her whole reaction — Spoken quoting only; skip it in a formal report.
'What the fuck are you doing?' She's all, 'What? What?'act on the client's account and stop there
After the forbidden question, she slams the door: take his account and stop running a private trial.
'You don't get to ask him if he did it. You take his instructions and that is it.Do not bite off the end of don't; slide into get.
'You don't get to ask him if he did it. You take his instructions and that is it.you conduct the case run means conduct the case, not move fast
'If he has a case, you run it. End of story.in the exact original words
Adam is laughing now. She said to me... No, I swear this is word for word.someone said to be a victim, not yet proved not a proven victim; alleged keeps the claim unproved
an alleged victim, he gently moves them into thinking he is on their side.apparently allied with them not a physical side; a feeling that you are with them
an alleged victim, he gently moves them into thinking he is on their side.the account does not hold together holes are gaps in the story, not physical ones
And if the story has holes, then point them out.cleft sentence: The cleft shifts the risk from your case onto the law.
Because it's not just your case, it's the law that is at stake.skip proper steps to go faster not trimming a corner; skipping required steps
protect the police that don't cut corners, so the police that do are exposed.verb ellipsis: that do borrows cut corners and points at police who skip steps.
protect the police that don't cut corners, so the police that do are exposed.escape conviction not leaving a place; avoiding a guilty verdict
OK, OK, if a few guilty people get off,represent someone as their lawyer not performing; representing them in court
'How do you act for someone who you know did it?'relative clause: who marks the person you already believe is guilty.
'How do you act for someone who you know did it?'opposed infinitives: The second not sits after to, so not-knowing becomes the job.
Mm-mm, no, the job is not to know, it's to not know.Hit not, then let know fall away from the first half.
Mm-mm, no, the job is not to know, it's to not know.the single condition that makes it work
The only way the system works is because we all play our roles.the most favourable telling
A good lawyer just tells the best version of their client's story.a speaker who does not decide not a gadget; a person who carries the client's voice
Nothing more. Nothing else. Just a storyteller, a voice piece.Push ever above the nevers so the ban lands again.
Never judge, never ever judge. Never decide!completely ruined — Vulgar shock at a total loss; never in open or formal speech.
The minute you do that, you are fucked!「Sophie Walks the Tightrope」を読み解く
What's really going on
The lunch story is a joke with a rule inside it. A pupil hears a not guilty plea and asks whether the client did it. The answer is absolute: "You don't play God! You don't decide or judge." Corporate lawyers in silk shirts are dismissed as "a different breed," people who live in contracts. This speaker's world is two stories and a jury that must choose. Polite cross-examination follows the same logic. Sympathy comes first, then the analysis, because those accounts are "usually so uncorroborated, and the law is the law." The dinner-party question, how you act for someone you know did it, gets no grand reply. The job "is not to know, it's to not know." A good lawyer is "a voice piece," telling only "the best version" of a client's story. Decide, and "you are lost."
Theme
JusticeDoubt is treated as something to uncover, and the jury, not the lawyer, chooses which story to believe.
DutyDefence is described as a role: take instructions, tell the best version, and refuse to judge.
発音のポイント
- did you do it — Let did you blur, and keep the t light before do.
- don't get to — Do not bite off the end of don't; slide into get.
- to not know — Hit not, then let know fall away from the first half.
- never ever judge — Push ever above the nevers so the ban lands again.
'But tell me the truth, did you do it?'The question a pupil puts to a client who wants to plead not guilty, and the question defence counsel is not allowed to ask.
'You're walking an ethical tightrope, Sophie.Asked of Sophie after she demands the truth: one answer from the client could limit what she is allowed to say in court.
Mm-mm, no, the job is not to know, it's to not know.A flat correction of the idea that a lawyer should discover guilt. The work is to remain unknowing and still defend.
We each tell a story and the jury decide which story is the one they believe.The trial is cast as two stories. Counsel speak, and belief, plus the verdict, is left with the jury.
A good lawyer just tells the best version of their client's story.The bar set here for good advocacy: not the truest story, only the strongest version the client's instructions allow.
You've lost. Well, you are lost.Judging the client is framed as more than a lost case. The lawyer who decides guilt is the one who is lost.
このシーンについての質問
Why is the pupil stopped from asking whether the client did it?
He wants to plead not guilty. The warning is that if he then says he did it, "it limits what you can say in court." She is told to take his instructions and, "If he has a case, you run it." Asking would mean she starts to decide.
What does this account say a lawyer's real job is?
"The job is not to know, it's to not know." Defence and prosecution each tell a story, "the jury decide which story is the one they believe," and "They take the responsibility." A good lawyer is "just a storyteller, a voice piece."
Why is the polite cross-examination not described as an attack?
"He never goes in for the kill." He "lulls them with sympathy and then analyses their answers," because "His view is there is no need to cause pain" when the accounts are "usually so uncorroborated."
How is the dinner-party question answered?
The question quoted is "How do you act for someone who you know did it?" The reply is that the job is not grand: if some guilty people "get off," it is because the prosecution and the police did not do the job well enough. "Due process, it's everything."
ナショナル・シアター・ライブ2022／プライマ・フェイシィ · 全 22 章
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次のチャプター · 第 7 章burn the midnight oilAfter Hours in Chambers
第 1 章play it coolEnsler Lets the Witness Talk
第 2 章blood in the waterEnsler Corners the Witness
第 3 章What's new?Tessa Comes Home After the Win
第 4 章crème de la crèmeThe Dean's Induction Warning
第 5 章manoeuvred his way aroundEveryone Is Watching at the Party
再生中 · 第 6 章ethical tightropeSophie Walks the Tightrope
第 7 章burn the midnight oilAfter Hours in Chambers
第 8 章get under their skinTessa Baiting the Sergeant
第 9 章her word against hisJenna's Word on Trial
第 10 章justify the costTessa's Date Ends in Vomit
第 11 章legal truthTessa Asks for the Police Station
第 12 章no armourTessa Enters Court Without Armour
第 13 章get someone offsideTessa's Police Interview
第 14 章in the hands ofTessa Agrees to Testify
第 15 章psyche myself upTessa Is the One on Trial
第 16 章go through with thisUp to the Witness Stand
第 17 章put it down toTessa Runs into Julian
第 18 章cross-examining myselfCross-Examining Herself in Court
第 19 章in the darkWitness Faces the Cross-Examination
第 20 章fall for itTessa Remembers on the Stand
第 21 章news to meTessa Loses Faith in the Law
第 22 章litmus testWitness Calls Out the Rape Law第 6 / 22 章 · 残り約 54 分