Doesn't the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive/Consumer Protection from unfair trading regulations hold directors personally accountable if they treat consumers unfairly, mislead them or treat them aggressively?

100%. You see that a lot in opening speeches. There is usually something in an opening speech that will indicate that the advocate is honest, fair, trustworthy, educated and/or a person of integrity. It was considered a key objective of an opening speech - for the advocate to establish their ethos.

I found a great little book, called "Hints for public speakers - intended for young barristers" that covered the basic points of declamation. It's very sweet, but quite useful. www.advocacy.website/images/downl...

The old way of learning advocacy was to study the texts of the great legal orators, including people like Curran, Erskine, Marshall Hall, as well as the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Some of those speeches are superb oratory and they absolutely draw on how to use tone, gestures etc.

Agreed. Which is why most KC's have studied classical legal rhetoric (in my experience anyway) because studying declamation as an active subject makes you a better advocate. That said, there are fashions in legal advocacy, and the appeal to pathos is certainly done less today.

Has there been a orator greater than Cicero? (Rhetorical question 😁)

Whereas ethics is now taught as a system of rules, rather than a fundamental and intrinsic part of being persuasive as an advocate. Which l don't think is helpful.

For example, under the system of classical legal rhetoric, an advocate needs to demonstrate ethos (honesty, fairness and integrity) and use logical and emotional arguments if they want to be persuasive.

In my experience, modern advocacy training teaches you how to do advocacy, whereas studying classical legal rhetoric teaches you WHY such techniques are important if you want to be persuasive.

He's definitely one of the greats! He was a standard part of Bar training for millennia as he was so influential. Ditto Aristotle, Quintilian and Demosthenes. That only stopped after WW2 - modern advocacy training is in its infancy, and l think misses out by deliberately shunning classical oratory.