The Inn offers a number of services and provides information to its student members to help them hone their skills as advocates and introduce them to life at the Bar.
Further information can be found using the links on the left of this page. If you have any enquiries with regard to any of these services please contact the Education Department on 020 7427 4800.
Click here to download the information pack for new BPTC students 2019/20.
Call to the Bar by an Inn of Court is the gateway to entitlement to practise. Further training and education must be undertaken throughout a barrister’s career, during which barristers are able to draw on their Inns’ resources.
Lying behind the formal training requirements is a very considerable degree of pastoral and educational support, which the Inns provide to pupils as well as new and established practitioners.
The Inn offers advocacy training to students, pupils and new practitioners
Students have the options of
Pupils are required by the Bar Standards Board to attend a minimum of 12 hours of practical advocacy teaching. Although practice management hours are no longer compulsory, our courses still contain practice management lectures. Dates on offer are:
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 advocacy courses are taught by practitioners at all levels. We take pride in having a vibrant team of advocacy trainers from all areas of practice, who can provide training relating directly to their own experience. Since the demands on the provision of training are increasing, we are constantly looking for new additions to the team and would welcome hearing from you.
Before they can start teaching classes, all new trainers have to undergo a 'Training the Trainers' programme to familiarise themselves with the training method which is used by all the Inns and Circuits.
Fundamental change to the process: Pupil Supervisors no longer have to apply to their Inn for approval.
On 1 April 2019, the BSB Handbook was amended and the new Bar qualification rules came into force. In addition, on 27 March 2019, the BSB signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Inns of Court, setting out the roles and responsibilities of the BSB and the Inns under the new rules.
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is work undertaken over and above the normal commitments of barristers with the purpose of developing their skills, knowledge and professional standards in areas relevant to their present or proposed area of practice, and in order to keep themselves up to date and maintain the highest standards of professional practice.
There are two competitions for Major Scholarships each year:
The Inn also offers scholarships for post-Bar Course placements in overseas jurisdictions, essay prizes, support for five places on the South-Eastern Circuit Advocacy Course (‘Keble course’), and a pupillage hardship fund.
Scholarships are available for the Bar Course and the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) or equivalent post-graduate conversion courses. Only candidates who intend to practise at the Bar of England or Wales are eligible to apply.
These scholarships will be paid in one instalment at the start of the academic year for a full-time course.
