Only current Bar Course students (or those who’ve completed the course) are eligible to apply.
Training the Trainers
The Inn’s advocacy courses, at all levels, are taught by current and former practitioners. Before they start training advocacy, they are required to undergo training themselves. On the Training the Trainers courses, Bar Course students act as “guinea pigs”, i.e. they are taught by the new trainers, under the supervision of the Inn’s most experienced advocacy trainers.
New Practitioners’ Programme (NPP)
New Practitioners are required to attend nine hours of advocacy training by the end of the first three years of independent practice. The Inn's New Practitioners’ Programme offers advocacy courses, each with a choice of programme for those at the Self-Employed Bar (civil, criminal or family law) or the Employed Bar.
For all these programmes, Bar Course students act as dedicated witnesses. Acting as a witness involves being given a role and then you are cross-examined by practitioners as part of their advocacy exercises. Witnesses do also benefit from listening to the advice given to the new practitioners by some of the Inn’s most senior trainers and judges.