Grammar Practice: English Tenses

Exercise 5

Review the rules of some English Tenses usage. The Table below represents the examples of verb forms.

Present Simple	Present Continuous	Present Perfect	Present Perfect Continuous	Past Simple	Future (going to / will, Present Cont)
act for a client	is acting for ….	has acted for ….	has been acting for	acted for	is going to act for will probably act for is acting for
brief a case
draw up a motion
keep records
resolve a dispute

a) Complete the Table with appropriate forms.

b) Make up sentences with these forms as in the example.

Mr. Jones acts for his clients in court.

Now he is acting for Jane Smith in court.

He has acted for a number of clients with success.

He has been acting for the Smiths family for a ten years.

Last year he acted for Alex Smith.

Next week he is acting for Kevin Smith.

He is going to act for the Smiths in court and other legal matters/

Exercise 6

Eric Paulson is a corporate counsel, and he works for the company TDF. Examine a page from his diary and prepare to speak about his past, present and future activities.

Day of the week	2 – 8 October	9 – 15 October (this week)	16 – 22 October
Monday	file a lawsuit to District Court	draft a contract examine the other party’s financial position	going to sue the suppliers
Tuesday	verify the company documents	prepare for negotiations research legislation (as always)	attending a shareholders meeting
Wednesday	meet the company’s clients discuss a deal	(today) negotiate a sales contract work with financial documents	???
Thursday		usually visit banks	visiting the Bank
Friday	start drafting a contract	prepare a claim
Saturday	play tennis with Adam	play tennis with Adam	play tennis???
Sunday	have picnic	have a picnic	rain? No picnic. No rain – have a picnic

Topic Development

Exercise 7

Read the schedule of a lawyer and do the Tasks 1 and 2 below.

A Day in the Life: Law firm lawyer (Helen Redford)

7:45 a.m.: Arrive at office; check e-mail, voice mail and a few faxes.

8:00 a.m.: Look through the latest case papers and draft a claim against the construction firm.

8:15 a.m.: Prepare to attend the hearing regarding the client’s case that concerns defective product bought from a supermarket. Call the expert to confirm that the hearing is held at 1:30 p.m..

9:30 a.m.: Attend a hearing on road accident as a defendant counsel. Unfortunately, we lose the case. The judge awards a substantial sum of damages to the plaintiff.

11:00 a.m.: Meet with the senior associate of our firm to discuss how to prepare a motion to dismiss a nuisance claim made against our client. Finally we draft the motion and file it to the judge.

11:30 a.m.: Brief an important discrimination case. Make a research to find some court rules as precedents.

12:30 p.m.: Review documents to prepare to attend the hearing where the expert witness is giving evidence.

1:00 p.m.: Lunch!

1:30 p.m.: Attend the hearing on negligence case. My expert witness is great! It looks that we are going to win the case. The presiding judge sees the point and I think will give a good fair judgment.

4:00 p.m.: Work with documents.

5:00 p.m.: Conference with a new client. Explain that I’ll bring the action only after I have studied all the details. Tell her what it takes to plead a defamation once case in court. Offer her to think if it’s possible to try to mediate the case.

7:00 p.m.: Meet with senior associate to discuss the case concerning discrimination at work.

7:30 p.m.: Leave office and head home.

Tasks