From the Treasurer

I still remember how nervous and awestruck I was, as the state school-educated son of a factory worker and the first of my family to go to university, when I first showed my face in the Inn. But I also remember clearly just how encouraging and supportive to me almost everyone here – particularly the most senior and distinguished – was when I was a student member. Without the Major Law Grant (then the Inn’s largest award) which the Inn gave me, I could never have survived what turned out to be a slightly rocky start to go on to build my career at the Bar.

It therefore gives me great satisfaction to be able, as this year’s Treasurer of the Inn, to say with confidence that it remains the proud tradition of The Inner Temple that it welcomes everyone, whatever their origins, whatever their background, who has the talent and determination needed to become a barrister.

The Inn now has a wide variety of schemes whose object is to ensure that a career at the Bar is, so far as we can possibly make it, open to all.

These start with projects whose aim is to raise the aspirations of those still at school. The Inn has had a ‘discovery day’ schools project since 2008 (now operating in partnership with the Sutton Trust’s Pathways to Law programme), which aims to ensure that all students, regardless of their background, are aware of the opportunities that could be available to them at the Bar. The Inn also joined with the Open University in 2021 to produce a suite of digital resources to help to bring those opportunities to the attention not only of the school children themselves but also of their parents and teachers.

For those at university, the Inn’s outreach team, supported by an enthusiastic cohort of experienced barrister and judicial volunteers, runs a series of ‘insight events’ each year, to give those who might be thinking of a career at the Bar the chance to learn more about the realities of life at the Bar, about the ways to join the profession, and about the support available to those who need it. These insight events are supplemented by access to tours of the Inn and its facilities, and by regular newsletters produced by the Inn, both for those thinking of coming to the Bar and for the academic and careers staff who advise them.

The Inn is particularly proud of its Pegasus Access and Support Scheme (PASS). PASS works in partnership with some 62 different sets of chambers across a range of practice areas, to improve access to the profession by those from less advantaged and under-represented backgrounds. It provides them with the sort of contacts and access to mini pupillages and other experiences that they might not otherwise have, and helps them to develop the advocacy and other skills that they need to prepare them for a career at the Bar.

Finally, for those who do eventually make the decision to try to come to the Bar, about £2 million (out of the overall total of about £5 million which the Inn devotes to its education and training activities each year) is given out as scholarships or other awards to our students. These awards are made on merit, but the amount awarded is adjusted by reference to means, including in most cases parental income, so that the Inn’s support is targeted at those who most need it. The Inn also runs mentoring schemes, supports several student societies, and does its best to ensure that its programme of Qualifying Sessions not only provides the necessary educational content but also the contact with the practising Bar and the Judiciary that students need to make them feel part of the profession and to understand its ethics and its traditions.

As the old saying has it, in The Inner Temple, it is not where you have come from that matters, but only where you are going.

When writing this introduction to the Yearbook, my predecessors have all rightly said what a privilege it is to be the Treasurer of our Inn, the most recent in a line of office-holders that stretches back as far as 1484 at the head of an institution that has existed since no later than 1388 (and probably earlier). Not many of my predecessors, though, have said (at least in so many words) just how much fun it is.

I decided on taking up office in January that I would work this year from the Treasurer’s small office in the Treasury Building and, with the help of modern technology, make that room an annexe to my chambers in Gray’s Inn. It has given me the chance to get to know both the Treasury Office team and the staff of the Pegasus Bar, who make the best cappuccinos in EC4. It has also given me the chance, after more than 40 years working in Gray’s, to appreciate once more just how special the working environment is in The Inner Temple. Those of us who have had the privilege of spending any part of our student and working lives here are privileged in so many respects.

First, the place itself. The unique atmosphere of the Inn derives from its combination of fascinating buildings (at least 29 of which are listed) and inviting spaces. Those spaces include our gas-lit lanes and courtyards as well as our wonderful garden. This three-acre oasis overlooking the Thames not only provides a vital breathing space for humans, but also serves as a much-needed refuge for nature, with its mosaic of habitats including ancient trees, herbaceous borders, flowering shrubs, wildflower meadows and open sunny lawns.

“As the old saying has it, in The Inner Temple, it is not where you have come from that matters, but only where you are going.”

Another space offering a respite from the pressures of the everyday world is the Temple Church, the ‘college chapel’ which we share with our sister Inn, the Middle Temple, and where we hold many of the ceremonies at which we call our student members to the Bar. The round church at its western end dates from the 1160s, a full century before the first colleges were established at Oxford. As one of the places where Magna Carta was negotiated before being sealed at Runnymede in 1215, the Temple Church has a just claim to be regarded as the cradle of the common law. But, sitting now in its pews or walking in its aisles, it is a lightness of spirit rather than the weight of history that one feels.

Secondly, the people. The Inn does its best to provide a collegiate and supportive community for all our members. We try, for example, to be a supportive (but realistic) landlord to our barrister and residential tenants, because it is the rents paid by them that help to fund the extensive programme of educational activities that we provide for our student members, and which pay for the scholarships that we award each year. Without that funding, and without the immense amount of time willingly and voluntarily given by the many barrister and judicial members who organise and teach on our Qualifying Sessions and advocacy training courses, and who supervise our student societies, that programme of educational activities and support simply could not happen.

Finally, our wonderful and dedicated staff. Without them – the catering staff, the carpenters, electricians, plumbers, cleaners and other estates department staff, the car park attendants, the porters, the librarians and archivists, the staff of our friendly and welcoming Education & Training Department, and the staff of the Finance and Treasury offices – the Inn could not function. Perhaps more importantly, without the loyalty and commitment of our staff, The Inner Temple would not be the quite exceptional and friendly place that it is.

I have done my best to make this a more than usually musical year for the Inn. The Temple Music Foundation (TMF) started the year for us in January by putting on a performance in Hall by the Gabrieli Consort & Players of Handel’s sensuous oratorio Solomon. The Brazilian guitarist Plínio Fernandes played for us at another TMF concert in the Inn’s third floor lecture theatre in February: and in October the TMF will be bringing the London Mozart Payers to our Hall.

But perhaps the highlight of the year for me was the production of the Prelude to Act 1 and the whole of Act 3 of Parsifal in the Temple Church in April. I was at last able to put my knowledge of the Inn’s compost heap (acquired during the Treasurer’s introductory walkabout) to good use by introducing the production’s set designer, Claudia Fragoso, to the Inn’s Head Gardener, Sean Harkin, when Claudia urgently needed to replenish her supply of dead leaves to decorate the stage. The director of the production, Julia Burbach, and the conductor, Peter Selwyn, both went on to produce Opera Holland Park’s highly successful Flying Dutchman this summer, and Julia’s production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola will open English National Opera’s autumn season at the Coliseum this September. Opera Holland Park themselves came to The Inner Temple to stage Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury on 1 July, directed by John Savournin, with a boisterous jury drawn from the audience.

The distinguished accompanist, Anna Tilbrook, has helped me also to put together a programme of music for the Inn’s formal dinners. At Private Guest Night in February, Anna accompanied the violinist, Emily Sun. The young pianist Catriona Mackenzie played at Bencher’s Night in May, and in June our second Private Guest Night was enlivened by a richly satirical performance by the operatic cabaret artist, Melinda Hughes, accompanied by Jeremy Limb.

Looking forward, the tenor Robert Murray will be singing for us at Benchers’ Night in October. Finally, the Evensong preceding our Grand Day dinner in November will feature a performance of the Te Deum for choir, organ and trumpets which my wife’s late father, Philip Cannon FRCM, composed as a result of a personal commission from Queen Elizabeth II for the Quincentenary of St George’s Chapel, Windsor. Afterwards, the trumpeters who will play in that performance will perform at the start of dinner a fanfare which the Inn has specially commissioned from the Scottish composer and RCM professor, Martin Suckling. After dinner, the wonderful and world-famous soprano, Lucy Crowe OBE, will give a short recital, with Anna as her accompanist.

Turning to more practical matters it has also been, I am pleased to say, a year of moving forward. I have done my best to lunch in Hall as often as possible, and have revised the guidelines for lunching on High Table, to encourage my fellow Benchers to resume the habit of doing so. I have revised the guidelines for the operation of the Inn’s many committees. I have also resumed, after a gap of some years, the practice of having termly meetings between our Treasurer and Sub-Treasurer and the Treasurer and Under Treasurer of Middle Temple. This year’s Treasurer of Middle, Lady Justice Thirlwell, and I hope that these regular meetings – as much as the Amity Dinners that we hold each year – will help to foster the proper and necessary spirit of friendship and collaboration between our two Inns, joined as we are by our shared occupation of this special site and by our common Charter obligations.

Our very capable Collector, Jane Whittaker, and Master Philip Moser, the Master of the House and his committee, have between them successfully renegotiated our contract with our catering suppliers, Searcys. Under Jane’s guidance, the Inn has adopted new guidelines for the accounting treatment of its reserves: and, with Jane’s help (and the reduction which the renegotiated contract should bring in the catering deficit), Master Sonia Nolten and her Finance Sub-Committee have produced a realistic plan to bring the Inn’s finances back into balance by 2027.

Thanks to Master Alison Foster, our Master of the Pictures, the plan to improve the gender balance on our walls is also moving forward. We hope to unveil and to hang in Hall this autumn the portrait by Keith Breeden of Master Sue Carr, the Lady Chief Justice: and plans are afoot to follow that in the coming years with portraits of two other distinguished female members, Master Ingrid Simler and Master Joanna Korner (and with a portrait of Master Robin Griffith-Jones, though he of course is a man).

Under the auspices of Master Jeremy Richardson’s EDI Sub-Committee, in June the Inn held a very well-attended and successful dinner to celebrate South Asian heritage, and hosted the first ever cross-profession LBGTQ+ Pride reception. Also in June, the Inn hosted the annual Inns of Court Alliance for Women garden party. We have held lunches with the help of the FCDO’s Rule of Law Adviser for the Caribbean, our Honorary Bencher Master Sirah Abraham, to strengthen our connections with that region. Delegations from India and elsewhere have also come to lunch in the Inn, and I was privileged to attend a dinner at the residence of the Indian High Commissioner to welcome India’s new Chief Justice, B R Gavai, the first Buddhist and only the second Dalit to hold that distinguished post.

“The Inner Temple, with its well-established reputation for excellence in advocacy training, is ideally placed to help the countries of the Commonwealth to develop and sustain the rule of law.”

Finally, we have at last brought Project Pegasus to a conclusion, with a very satisfactory settlement of the litigation which we had been compelled to bring against our architects and other consultants in relation to the fire protection specification in the initial design. The Inn owes a great debt to those who have guided us through this dispute, particularly last year’s Treasurer, Master Michael Soole, our advisory ‘War Cabinet’ of members who practise in construction law, our Director of Properties & Surveyor, Richard Snowdon, and our legal advisers, Calum Lamont KC, Tom Coulson and our Bristol-based solicitors, Foot Anstey LLP. It is very pleasing that we can now put this issue behind us, as we continue to enjoy the aesthetically delightful yet very practical facilities and working environment that Project Pegasus has produced in our Treasury Building.

Away from the Inn, the Sub-Treasurer and I have attended on the Inn’s behalf the Commonwealth Law Association (CLA) conference in Malta, and have visited the Inn’s alumni associations in Malaysia and Singapore, signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Law Society of Singapore while we were there. In the autumn, we plan as usual, to attend the American Inns of Court Celebration of Excellence in Washington.

Before embarking on these trips, I was perhaps a little sceptical of the benefit to the Inn of these overseas visits as compared with the cost. Our reception in Malta, Malaysia and Singapore has, however, firmly convinced me of how worthwhile this all is.

The common law is one of this country’s great gifts to the world. Good governance and sustainable economic development require the rule of law within a properly functioning legal system. That, in turn, requires adherence to the Commonwealth’s Latimer House Principles on the accountability of, and the relationship between, the three branches of government. Fundamental to these principles is the separation of powers, the independence of the judiciary and zero tolerance of corruption.

The contributions from the floor during the sessions at the CLA conference made it clear to me just how important it is to our fellow lawyers in so many countries where the rule of law is challenged that the UK should stand with and support them, and how much they take heart from the participation by The Inner Temple in these events. Even in the comparatively successful economies of Malaysia and Singapore, those we met there made it clear how much they value the moral support that they derive from their association with the Inn in standing up for the rule of law in their jurisdictions, and how much we can each learn from the other’s experiences.

The Inner Temple, with its well-established reputation for excellence in advocacy training, is ideally placed to help the countries of the Commonwealth to develop and sustain the rule of law. Master Sarah Clarke and her Advocacy Training Committee, the Sub-Treasurer, and I, have therefore been working with the secretariat of the CLA to explore what the Inn can offer by way of training to those countries in the Commonwealth where it is most needed.

All of this is very positive and heartening. Sadly, there may nevertheless still be trouble ahead. Both the Chair of the Legal Services Board and the Chair of the Bar Standards Board came to lunch in the Inn early in the year and, within a couple of weeks, both had resigned. We do not yet know what plans their successors may have for the profession.

Having at last finished with Project Pegasus, we are now faced with the need to develop the rest of our estate to make it as accessible as possible and to prepare it (and the Inn as a whole) for the economic, climatic and technological challenges of the rest of the 21st century. I am pleased to say that Master Roger Stewart and the Estates Committee already have this project well in hand. Doing what is necessary, and doing it well so that it stands the test of time, will not, however, be cheap.

The Bar Council has also put the issue of the timing of Call – whether it should take place, as now, at the conclusion of the Bar Course, or should be deferred until completion of some or all of the required period of pupillage – back on the agenda. The Inns will have to consider their position this autumn in relation to this controversial question. A change in the timing of Call could have profound effects on the Inns, both in their relations with their students and (over longer time) in their relations with the rest of the common-law world.

Even so, the Inn seems to me to remain in good heart and good physical and financial shape. We are extremely fortunate in our Sub-Treasurer, Greg Dorey CVO, from whom I have received the most exceptional, diplomatic, and wisest of support. I am profoundly grateful to him. I am also very grateful to the Director of Treasury Office, Henrietta Amodio, and to all of the Treasury Office staff, who have coped seamlessly with the greatly increased workload which my musical ambitions for the year have imposed on them. Finally, I must thank the Reader, Master Helen Davies, and the Reader Elect, Master Juliet May, for their wise counsel and unfailing support.

After all the fun that I have had this year, it is a sobering thought for someone like me that the Treasurer of the Inn in 2027 is to be someone who, although now a Judge of the Court of Appeal, was once (a long time ago) my pupil: but I take comfort from the thought that the Inn will be, with Helen and Juliet, in the very safest of hands.

Richard Salter KC
Treasurer 2025