Colonial legal historiography has tended to focus on customary tribunals rather than ‘European’ courts. This article offers a new vantage point from which to view Kenya’s legal system by looking at colonial judges through the eyes of the trial lawyers who appeared before them. By the late 1950s, Asian lawyers were numerically superior to Europeans and there were only a handful of African advocates. The focus of this article is these advocates’ day-to-day court experiences, and their assessment of individual judges’ competence, roles and attitudes. Their oral testimony adds to our understanding of the function of Kenya’s superior courts and the characters and outlook of the judges and lawyers who staffed them.