Choosing an Inn of Court
Call night, 2002
I don't want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members.
I hear you Groucho, I hear you. One of the most frequent questions I’m asked by law students thinking of pursuing a career at the Bar, is which Inn they should join. Having answered this question in person and in messages, I thought I’d write a short blog post.
Isn’t X better if I want to go into practice area Y?
No. There’s no correlation between the practice area you want to go into and the Inn you join. There are plenty of supportive members from all practice areas at each Inn. You’ll meet, hear from and be trained by members from across the diverse practice areas of the bar.
Isn’t X better if I’m from Y part of the country?
No. The Inns have members from across the jurisdiction and retain links with circuits and bar course providers up and down the land.
Isn’t X more friendly than the others?
No. Members of each of the Inns who volunteer their time to help the next generation of the bar are friendly and generous with their time. The Directors of Education at each Inn ensure that all students receive the support they need.
Isn’t the food better at X for all those dinners you have to eat?
No. I’ve eaten lunch and dinner at all four (not on the same day) and had planned a review of all of them prior to Covid. Plus it’s not all dinners.
Wait, what, it’s not all dinners?
No. All of the Inns offer a variety of qualifying sessions, as they are now called. There’s a mixture of dinners, advocacy weekends and talks. They let me deliver one, but the rest are worth listening to.
Okay, but which one is most like Gryffindor?
I have no idea what you are talking about. Is Gryffindor some sort of avian cat flap?
How should I decide then?
In my view, the greatest difference between the Inns is in how they allocate their considerable scholarship funds. Some interview every applicant, others sift and only interview some. They differ too in the number of scholarships, some offering fewer but more money, others offering more scholarships but in smaller amounts. If you are applying for a scholarship either for the law conversion or bar course, do read the information from each Inn carefully to see which might fit you best. There’s no secret to filling in the application form beyond any other, save that you ought to consider that they are scrutinised by barristers who will, if you are interviewed, scrutinise every word and ask you questions to probe what you wrote. Seek advice from an academic or perhaps better yet, a member of the bar, to give you some advice on what you have written. They won’t rewrite it, but they will be helpful.
I am not eligible for a scholarship / I applied but didn’t receive a scholarship / I have no intention of applying for a scholarship.
You could:
Walk around all four.
Invent a double-round robin plus IPL finals style tournament with famous members representing each Inn
Throw a ball of paper at four pieces of paper, each with the name of one of the Inns. (Note: this is not how I filled out the seventh and eighth choices on my UCAS form).
Or do what I did, pick the one with the colours you like best. Easy for me. Red. Therefore, Middle Temple. Oh and they have the friendliest people (Exhibit 1 of many - Christa Richmond), best food and all of their members have the best hair. Fact.
Despite my flippant tone, I remain eternally grateful to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple for awarding me two scholarships and an entrance exhibition.