The Ins and Outs of Inns

Dear Oracle

I've heard it through the grapevine that the Inns pay students to study the BVC. Is this true? I'd like to know more about these mysterious Inns anyway.

The Oracle replies

Thanks for writing in! You have to be a member of one of the Inns of Court to be a practising barrister, so you're right to enquire.

There are four Inns of Court: Gray's Inn (www.graysinn.org.uk), Inner Temple (www.innertemple.org.uk), Lincoln's Inn (www.lincolnsinn.org.uk) and Middle Temple (www.middletemple.org.uk). Anyone wishing to train for the Bar must join one of them.

The Inns are essentially societies for barristers and would-be barristers. Each Inn has different scholarships and bursaries available for the BVC and CPE, but the information they provide is pretty complicated. Start by going to each Inn's website; it is advisable to spend some time wading through what's on offer, with scholarships going up to £24,000. This isn't the same as simply being paid for the doing the BVC: you have to go through a rigorous application process and be deemed worthy of a scholarship or bursary.

As you will see in the 2007 edition of The Training Contract & Pupillage Handbook, most if not all of the barristers interviewed urge students to join an Inn as soon as possible. In any case, you should join one by 31 May of the year in which your BVC is due to start. The Inns have their own idiosyncrasies (rather like the different houses at Hogwarts), so you should visit all four, check out their websites and investigate the range of scholarships on offer. In addition, see this feature on the mysterious right of passage known as the 12 dinners: "Twelve Dinners".

Good luck courting a scholarship!