Qualifying Sessions

All students are required to attend 12 Qualifying Sessions before Call to the Bar; the 12th of these can be Call night itself.

Most Qualifying Sessions take the form of a collegiate event in Hall, combined with a talk or other educational element, but attendance at an Advocacy Weekend, Education Day and the Introduction Weekend for those students attending the BPTC outside London, also count. Certain educational events may also be accredited. In addition, students undertaking the BPTC at providers outside London may arrange up to three Qualifying Sessions locally.

Following the terms of the legal year, the Inns' Qualifying Session Terms are called Hilary, Easter, Trinity and Michaelmas. You will find details on what is happening on any given night in the Inn Calendar. The compulsory 12 Qualifying Sessions must be attended over a period of no more than five years. Most students manage to fit them into a single year. Many students enjoy the experience and ambience of dining in Hall and lunch in Hall regularly. Students and members alike are encouraged to continue to attend Qualifying Sessions throughout their career and to bring guests as often as possible.

Attendance at Qualifying Sessions in Hall is recorded by the porters, who collect students' tickets and mark their names on a list as having attended. The onus is on students to hand in their tickets and thus to make sure that their attendance goes on record.

Students must attend all the elements of a Qualifying Session in order to be confirmed as having attended. Depending on the programme of the evening, this might be a pre-dinner lecture, dinner and music recital, or dinner and a moot.

In exceptional circumstances, students may seek permission to leave early. In order to do so, they will need to contact the Treasury Office by email to request permission beforehand. If permission is given, students will have to have a printout of the email to show to the Porters if requested.