The Inner Temple Student Societies

The Inner Temple Racial Equality Society

The Society has had an impactful year, delivering a range of events focused on widening participation at the Bar and fostering meaningful dialogue across the profession.

Following the success of our inaugural South Asian Heritage Month event, it has become a cornerstone of the Society’s annual programme. Last year’s panel discussion prompted thoughtful reflection on identity, belonging and cultural heritage. We continue to be inspired by the experiences of practitioners with South Asian backgrounds and are grateful to our speakers: Kiran Channa, Grace Ong, Zacharias Miah, Adiba Bassam, Zeenat Islam and Dr S Chelvan.

In October 2024, our in-person Black History Month event brought together over 70 attendees, creating valuable opportunities for networking across professional and academic communities. The event featured an exceptional panel:

• Jason Jackson – Deputy Mayor of Islington Council
• Elpha LeCointe – Deputy District Judge
• Alison Stuart – Director of Law, Governance and Monitoring Officer, Islington Council
• Dr Natasha Shotunde – Founder of the Black Barristers’ Network and Barrister at Garden Court Chambers
• Nathan Alleyne-Brown – Barrister at No5 Barristers’ Chambers
• Councillor Valerie Bossman-Quarshie – historian, activist
  and councillor

In addition to our flagship Pupillage Panel, we were proud to host our first wellbeing event, exploring topics such as imposter syndrome, burnout and mental health at the Bar. Master Rachel Spearing KC offered particularly valuable insight on maintaining work-life boundaries and prioritising wellbeing in a demanding profession.

We remain deeply appreciative of the ongoing support and guidance of the Master of the Society, Selva Ramasamy KC. His motivation and thoughtful encouragement continue to inspire the Committee in our collective efforts to promote equality and inclusion at the Bar.

The Inner Temple Mooting Society (ITMS)

The ITMS runs internal mooting competitions, provides teams for external competitions and hosts training events for student members. This year, we have had great success both nationally and internationally.

Internal Competitions:

The Intervarsity Moot featured 16 university teams. The final, judged by Master Reader, Master Kabir Sheikh KC and Master Willbourne, was won by the University of Swansea.

In the Pepperdine Moot, advocates were selected via the Introduction to Mooting training session. Susanna Breslin was named Best Advocate, as judged by Master Willbourne and Sarah Hair.

This year, 82 students registered for the Lawson Moot.

William Dobbs was named the winner. We recently held the Commercial Law Moot, sponsored by One Essex Court Chambers. 32 students registered to participate and Yousif Shami won the competition.

External Competitions:

Jessup Moot (Washington DC)

At the world’s largest moot, with 805 teams, The Inner Temple team (Lucas Jones, George Sheldon Grun, Pragya Sinha Kumar, Anjali Gananathan, Matthew Wesson; coached by Sajid Suleman) placed in the top 16 globally.

VIS Moot (Vienna)

The VIS Moot focused on international commercial arbitration, with 385 teams from 88 countries. The Inner Temple team (Vigneshwari Manivannan, Cody Lai, Aaron Rajesh, Vikita Khetani, James Piercy, Grace Okafor, Saujanya Vinayy; coached by Louis Flannery KC) ranked 163rd.

Children’s Rights Moot (online)

With 31 teams globally, The Inner Temple team (Gemma Gould, Jack Clayton, Catherine Berus, Sylvia Chukualim; coached by Sarah Hair) reached the top four and won Best Memorial for the Applicant.

Sports Arbitration Moot (Madrid)

73 teams entered and 16 progressed to the finals in Madrid. The Inner Temple team (Helin Yaren Usal, Maddie Underhill, Jovana Koprivica, Sam Grankin, Tom Regis, Sarah Hair; coached by John Mehrzad KC and David Sharpe KC SC) placed in the top four.

Drama Society

The Inner Temple Drama Society kicked off the academic year in slapstick fashion with their annual Christmas pantomime in December 2024. Comedy met tragedy in Cinderella: the play that goes awry, written by Nicole Terry and Tom Isaac. Featuring an incredibly talented cast, the pantomime saw a group of amateur actors put on a production of Cinderella in which everything that can go wrong, does.

In May 2025, the society took part in the annual The Temple Shakespeare Cup, once again competing with Middle Temple in producing the best hour-long adaptation of a Shakespeare play. This year, The Inner Temple performed a charged and thought-provoking performance of The Merchant of Venice, directed by Kat Cutler and featuring wonderful costumes from the National Theatre. Middle Temple opted to humour their way to the prize by performing The Merry Wives of Windsor, a strategy that ultimately proved successful as Middle Temple won Best Play. Nevertheless, The Inner Temple cast were exceptionally proud of their romantic leads, Bassanio, played by Thomas Phillips, and Portia, played by Amelia Leventhorpe, who jointly won the prize of Best Actor for their memorable performances and indisputable chemistry on stage.

After a sell-out show in 2024, the society took a production to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2025. The Trial: In Absurdia, written by Blue DeBell and directed by Tom Isaac, is a modern retelling of Franz Kafka’s The Trial, portraying an absurdist legal system where justice comes second to the humorous shenanigans of the court. This production will also be performed for one night only at The Inner Temple on Monday 29 September 2025.

A friendly and welcoming society, it is now open to all members up to seven years’ Call.

Debating Society (ITDS)

The Debating Society ran an inaugural ‘collaborative’ competition with Middle Temple on 23 March 2025, where students from Middle Temple competed alongside students from The Inner Temple. The winning team was Saujanya Vinayy from The Inner Temple and David Horvarth-Franco from Middle Temple.

The Harrison Cup took place again this year on 1 February, with 24 teams competing across six rooms. Teams came from Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, KCL, UCL, Bristol, SOAS, ICCA, Buckingham, Dublin and Zurich. A silver final and a gold final were held, and the gold final was judged by Master May, Master Hiddleston and Master Sutherland Williams, alongside two university judges. Cyrus Braden and Joshua Stone from Edinburgh/KCL won the gold final. The winners of the silver final were Brian Jones and Nikhil Akappuram from Bristol.

The Inner Temple Debating Society competed in the following intervarsity competitions:

• Cambridge IV
• Birmingham Pro Am
• KCL Open
• Imperial Online Open
• Liverpool IV

ITDS are also sending a team to the European Championships in Copenhagen in August 2025.

The Debating Society competed in the Inter-Inn competition in June this year, reaching the semi-final. The team comprised Rhiannon Hobby, Kelvin Ma, Grace Okafor and Nathalie Podder.

Debating Society on Circuit

We took over two courtrooms at Bristol Magistrates’ Court on the 28 June for the BP Debating Shield semi-final and final. 16 competitors, three volunteer judges, three committee members and a member of The Inner Temple Education and Training team were there for 10.00am. The team positions and courtrooms were drawn from a hat. The two top-ranking teams in the semi-final debates went through to the final in courtroom nine. The semi-final motion was ‘This House believes that the ends always justify the means’ and the final motion was ‘This House would incentivise voting’.

A competitor shared the following feedback: “A positively challenging experience that pushed me to become a better advocate, with the added benefit of being in an actual courtroom.”

The winning team of the 2025 BP Debating Shield was Henry Clement-Jones and Tom Morris.

Volunteers from the Inn who judged the final were Master Oliver Lewis, Iain Wightwick and Jocelynne Scutt.

The Debating Society also held the final of the Public Speaking Competition at Manchester University of Law on 12 July 2025. This is the second year that Manchester ULaw have generously lent us their space. The winner of this competition was Kate Grimsdale; Joshua Hurst was the runner-up. The motions were ‘This House believes that commercial surrogacy is empowering for women’ and ‘This House would never vote in a democratic election’. The competition was judged by Master Samantha Hillas KC, Nigel Booth and Peter Anderson. Judges throughout the competition noted that the standard of public speaking was particularly high.

The Inner Temple Student Association (ITSA)

Pupillage Panels

The Pupillage Panels were organised by the 2025 ITSA Committee. This is a series of panels delving into various areas of law, in preparation for Pupillage Gateway applications. The events held are as follows:

All panels except the Circuit Panel were held in-person at The Inner Temple Treasury building. Mrs Louis-Byfield helped us secure the venue free of charge, and also organised the registration link.

The panellists comprised of barristers with varying tenure. The majority of them were pupils, probationary tenants and recent juniors. It is noted that some of them were previous members of The Inner Temple Drama Society, and we are grateful for their consistent support to the panels.

Originally we also planned to host panels in the Circuits but opted to merge these into one online event on Zoom. This consisted of seven panellists, the majority of whom were from the Wales and Chester, and Western circuits.

Attendance for the London panels ranged from 20 to full capacity (50). Attendance for the Circuit panel was around 40.

There were no costs in running the panels.

Burns Night 2025

On 23 January 2025, The Inner Temple and ITSA hosted Burns Night. This was mainly organised by Mrs Louis-Byfield; we are sincerely grateful for her efforts.

Panel Event: The Bar for International Students

On 25 March 2025, we hosted a panel event called The Bar for International Students, in collaboration with the International Future Barrister Mentorship. The aim was to have a panel of barristers of international backgrounds to discuss their pathways to the Bar, encouraging international students to pursue their aspirations.

The panel consisted of:

• Nia Marshall – Exchange Chambers
  (Co-Founder of IFBM; attended online)
• Emily Hayward – 3 Paper Buildings
• Jason Mitchell – Maitland Chambers
• Mikhail Charles – 5 Pump Court

Of the 68 sign-ups, 30 attended via Zoom and 12 attended in person. Our feedback form data stated the following recommendations:

• Better tech preparation is required
• More advertisement is required
• More events catered to international students

This was the first event of our Enrichment Series. We are aiming to organise five more events as part of this series.