Home From Home

Over the weekend of 9–11 May 2025, the Inn held the third of its three annual residential weekends, each of which are designed to allow students an insight into niche topics of the law, whilst also developing their oral advocacy.

The May weekend, expertly led by Master Thea Wilson and Master Oliver Lewis, concerned advocacy in the Coroner’s Court, and featured a blend of advocacy and ethics training, as well as talks and advice from experts and experienced practitioners. Students were treated to a particularly compelling Friday night keynote speech from Master Henrietta Hill and The Hon Mr Justice Jeremy Johnson, introducing the concept of work in the Coroner’s Court and public inquiries more widely. The knowledge from this talk was consolidated on the Saturday by an involved panel on varied aspects of inquest work, featuring Rachel Kelly (Hill Dickinson), Master Stephen Simblet (Garden Court Chambers), HM Coroner Andrew Harris, Deborah Coles (INQUEST), Serena Sekhon (No5 Chambers) and Rachel Woodward (Doughty Street Chambers). In addition to this, Master Rachel Spearing also delivered a highly practical talk on wellbeing in practice in the Coroner’s Court – a session which strove to be dually useful to practitioners taking on inquest work and students dealing with the topic at the weekend itself. The advocacy exercise, written by Master Wilson and Master Lewis, required the students to prepare oral submissions to the coroner at an inquest hearing, operating either for the family of the deceased, for the care home, for the GP practice or for the hospital. They were led through the exercise by knowledgeable and dedicated group leaders, who supported them further on the Sunday when they made their formal oral submission in front of a judge. As ever, we are hugely indebted to our volunteers, particularly the group leaders and judges who created, in the words of one student, a “very safe environment to ask questions”.

The weekend was also unusual in that it was held at The Inner Temple itself, rather than at one of the residential hubs we typically use to host our residential events. This is not the first time this has happened – a residential weekend was held at The Inner Temple in May 2023 when the coronation required a short-notice date change – but it is the first time we have planned a weekend this way from the outset. The decision was made by the Qualifying Sessions Committee, primarily as a means of fostering stronger ties between the students and their professional home. The new era of online and hybrid learning – whilst it fosters crucial accessibility – can mean that some students are unlikely to visit the Inn during their time on the Bar course. Holding a weekend event at the Inn itself (with accommodation built into their booking fee) provides an opportunity for students from across the country to familiarise themselves with their Inn and to make use of the state-of-the-art training facilities that were the result of Project Pegasus. Students were able to utilise the Inn’s redeveloped training rooms and auditorium for group learning and plenary sessions across the course of the weekend and were also invited to attend two formal dinners and drinks receptions in the Parliament Chamber and Luncheon Room. Student responses to this new residential location were extremely positive, with one noting that “the venue is stunning as always”, whilst another responded: “the venue, being the Inn, could not be better. It has the dual benefit of not only providing the training, but also an opportunity to engage with the volunteers, Benchers, staff and the building itself, over a longer period than other Qualifying Sessions.”

We are hugely grateful to all of our volunteers, but also to The Inner Temple’s peerless catering department, who managed the specific demands of a full-blown residential weekend without a hitch. On the strength of extremely positive feedback from students and volunteers, we are hoping to factor the use of the Inn more permanently into our residential Qualifying Sessions Programme.