New Practitioners need to attend a total of 45 hours of training by the end of their first three years of independent practice (becoming a tenant or commencing a 3rd six or held a practising certificate for less than 3 full calendar years). Nine of these hours must be advocacy and three ethics.
The Inn's New Practitioners’ Programme (NPP) offers courses both in Advocacy, with a choice of programme for those at the Self-Employed Bar (civil, criminal or family law) or the Employed Bar, and in Ethics.
Priority for places is given to members of Middle Temple but where possible, we can accommodate other members - please note this is not guaranteed.
There is a cost of £112 for the programme. (£79 for the advocacy and £33 for the ethics). This programme has 12 hours of advocacy & 4 hours of ethics.
NPP advocacy courses comprise a series of workshops on a Saturday, preceded by a case analysis session a few weeks before on a weekday evening and some written work (skeleton argument etc).
Upcoming courses
The next course date will be:
14 & 15 March 2026
Plus a compulsory case analysis session for the advocacy training on 19 February 2026.
- Thursday 19 February 2026 - case analysis session, remotely via Zoom, at 18:00
- Saturday 14 March 2026 - Advocacy, in person at the Inn, 09:00-16:00
- Sunday 15 March 2026 - Ethics, remotely via Zoom, 09:00-13:00
Applications for the March course will open on Friday 14 November, and close at 10:00 on Monday 5 January. There is no advantage to applying earlier in the application window, as places are allocated on the basis of urgency. Places will be confirmed by the end of January at the latest.
Later course dates
27 & 28 June 2026 (case analysis date TBC).
October 2026 - dates are TBC.
Please note - all places for the NPP are allocated on the basis of urgency (i.e. proximity to the expiry of the three year window), and not on a first come first served basis. At present, there is a backlog of practitioners due to Covid, so do not be alarmed if you are well within the three year window and are not successful this time. All efforts will be made to accommodate as many practitioners as possible on each course.