Student Societies
Debating Society
Our weekly online practice sessions continued to draw high turnout, covering a wide range of topics from human rights, AI, and the judiciary to Santa, Taylor Swift, and superheroes. We also included several sessions specifically aimed at preparing for pupillage.
The Intervarsity Debating Competition returned in February 2024 after a lengthy hiatus. The event, held in honour of Master Peter Harrison, was a huge success with teams from various institutions coming together to compete at the Inn. Congratulations to the winners, Middle Temple!
Our weekly online practice sessions continued to draw high turnout, covering a wide range of topics from human rights, AI, and the judiciary to Santa, Taylor Swift, and superheroes.
Our members participated in external competitions, including those at Durham and Liverpool, where they showcased their debating prowess. Our internal competitions, the Rawlinson Cup and the Public Speaking Competition, ran again in 2024. We were particularly pleased to hold the final of the Public Speaking Competition in Manchester, to introduce debating to students based outside of London. Congratulations to Yousif Shami who won both internal competitions and to finalists Richard Jones, Nicole Wallace, Jesler van Houdt and Colette Russell for competing in front of a panel of Benchers. Final topics included the merits of returning to Europe, cancelling ‘cancel culture’ and whether democracy has had its day.
The Inner Temple also hosted the Inter Inn Debate competition. As the 2023 winners, we were thrilled that The Inner Temple made it to the final round against Lincoln’s Inn this year and came in second place.
Our debaters also found time for fun! Our Christmas social, a murder mystery about who killed Santa, tested our advocacy skills, while our post-pupillage debriefs and summer party were more relaxed affairs.
We would like to thank our committee for their hard work throughout the year, our members for their enthusiasm for debating, and everyone who has assisted the Society.
Mollie-Anne Heywood and Abbi Robinson
Co-Presidents
Racial Equality Society
We’re looking forward to a very exciting year ahead. Last year we were able to host a pupillage panel preparation session. The highlight was our free Black History Month in-person event that comprised a fantastic panel, networking opportunity, food, and drinks. The panel included Councillor Anthony Okereke (leader of the cabinet of Royal Borough of Greenwich), Master Tunde Okewale (barrister at Doughty Street Chambers and former Master of RES), Mark Gettleson (head of campaigns and community engagement in the City of London Corporation), and Councillor Valerie Bossman-Quarshie (educator and historian from the Borough of Islington).
We hosted our first South Asian Heritage Month event this year and plan to run similar celebrations in the coming months.
After extensive work and consultations, our Society Constitution is now available and sets out the principles and functions of this Society. We thank the Student Engagement and Support Committee, especially Master Selvaraju Ramasamy and welcome Master Ramasamy as the new Master of RES.
We are particularly grateful to the panellists who have volunteered, our outgoing Master of Activity Master Tunde Okewale, and others who helped make the events run smoothly.
Kofo David and Tahmina Miah
Co-Presidents
The Inner Temple Students’ Association (ITSA)
It has been another busy year for ITSA. To begin with, we would like to say thank you to students of the Inn for attending the events that we have hosted, and barristers for joining panels and volunteering their time. There have been several highlights throughout the year.
The Christmas party was a super event and allowed over 50 students to mix and mingle after a term of study. The party also doubled as the prize-giving event for The Inner Temple’s inaugural Student Essay Competition which saw a strong collection of essays vie for the prizes on offer. Well done to those who submitted an essay, Joseph Maggs for coming in second place and Richard Matheson who won the competition. You can read his winning essay in this Yearbook. Thanks also to the panel of barristers who blind-marked the essays. Keep a look out in the autumn term when we publish details of this year’s question.
The Christmas party was a super event and allowed over 50 students to mix and mingle after a term of study. The party also doubled as the prize-giving event for The Inner Temple’s inaugural Student Essay Competition.
The start of the new year quickly brought in a flurry of events organised by ITSA. Once again, inclement weather conditions and the threat of strike action on the trains meant that pupillage application events were held online and reached students across the country. Several panel events were run to cover the main areas of practice and each of the knowledgeable panellists gave thoughtful and helpful advice to the students who dialled in. In amongst these events was the annual Burns Night celebration at the Inn which was a great success and hugely enjoyable night for all.
ITSA assisted the Education and Training Department with the inaugural Criminal Mock Trial competition in memory of Alexander Cameron KC. The final won by Casey-Mae Kellett took place at the Old Bailey on 5 February and was judged by Master Anthony Leonard. Well done to Neel Rokad for coming second and those who took part in earlier rounds. It would not have been possible without our volunteer judges, witnesses, and jury members. Special thanks to Alejandra Llorente Tascon, who initiated the project and wrote the fact patterns for each round, and to our sponsors 5 King’s Bench Walk, Three Raymond Buildings, and the Cameron family.
One of the biggest events hosted this year by ITSA was the Bar Scholarship Application Session where over 100 students dialled in to glean as much detail as they could manage about the scholarship opportunities. Good luck to all those who subsequently applied to the scheme.
Our most recent event was titled ‘Life in Chambers’ and was an in-person panel event which allowed a group of students, some having already secured pupillage, to hear what working as a barrister is like.
Our Essay Competition and Christmas Party, Burns Night, and Pupillage Application events are due to return in the next academic year. However, we are also excited to introduce our first events on circuit due to take place in Manchester and Birmingham and potential collaborative event with the Middle Temple Student Association as well. We look forward to giving you more information soon and seeing you there.
John Saddington
President
Mooting Society
The Mooting Society has been building on last year’s success and continues to grow as the biggest and most active student led mooting society across all four Inns.
Michaelmas Term
To celebrate our long-established relationship with Pepperdine University, we held our annual Pepperdine moot to at the start of the academic year. This was followed by first training session series, with four in-person sessions focusing on introductory mooting skills. We wrapped up Michaelmas term with the start of our flagship competition – The Lawson Moot. This year’s competition saw 90 members sign up.
Hilary Term
We started the busy Hilary term with our second training session series. This series focused on advocacy skills, and it was delivered online over four weeks with the aim to make it more accessible for student members on circuit. Our annual Intervarsity Moot was held in February. This year’s competition was a huge success, attracting teams from all over the country – from Kent to Aberystwyth and from University of Law (Bloomsbury) to Dundee. The continuing success of the Intervarsity Moot reflects the growing reputation of both the competition and the Mooting Society itself. Moving on to March, The Lawson Moot was concluded with the Grand Final judged by Master Robert Reed, Master Treasurer and Master Mark Hill (Master of Mooting). We are deeply grateful for Master of Mooting’s effort in securing such a distinguished panel.
Our external team was also very active during the Hilary term. In January, members of the society competed in the Worshipful Company of Arbitrators: Arbitration Competition and won the best roleplay award. The Inner Temple Team at the Jessup Moot also did very well in the national rounds, reaching the quarter finals before losing to the eventual winner. Finally, we also sent out a team to compete at The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Vienna in March.
Trinity Term
To wrap up our internal competitions this year, we held the Ecclesiastical Moot in April and Commercial Law Moot in June. We received record number of registrations for both competitions, and we are very grateful for the continuing support from Master of Mooting for the Ecclesiastical Law Moot and Master Camilla Bingham and One Essex Court for the Commercial Law Moot. In addition to organising moots, members of the committee also delivered an introductory training session on mooting at a PASS outreach event and The Inner Temple team competed in the final round of the annual Inter Inn Mooting Competition. On the external side, we sent out two teams to compete in Telders International Law Moot Court Competition and International Criminal Court (ICC) Moot at the Hague in May and June. Both teams did well to qualify for the international rounds and learnt a lot from their time moot abroad. We wrapped up this term with our annual summer party on 28 June.
Edwin Chan
President
Drama Society
The Drama Society kicked off the academic year with our annual Christmas pantomime, The Wizard of Laws written by Amanda Blue DeBell. The pantomime saw an Elle Woods Dorothy navigate her way through Oz with her friends Rex, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion. Standing in their way was a witch, based on a not so popular politician, and her assistant, a member of the civil service. This legal take on The Wizard of Oz generated laughs and joy from audiences spread across two nights.
In May, The Inner Temple Drama Society went up against Middle Temple for the annual Temple Shakespeare Cup (also known as ‘The Shake Off’). The Inner Temple put on their production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Middle Temple put on their production of The Tempest. The competition was judged by actors Alexander Macqueen (Middle Temple Bencher) and Jane Garda, screenwriter Master Tom Kinninmont and film producer Tony Bracewell. Both casts got lots of laughs. In the end, Middle Temple won the competition and Thomas Isaac of The Inner Temple received a special mention from the judges for best actor for his role as Puck.
Following our previous success at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Society is thrilled to be taking a talented cast up to Edinburgh this year for the festival. The Accused, written by Charlotte-Jane Buck and Tristan Greene, follows Daniel, a man accused of murder through a criminal trial where the audience performs the role of the jury. This dark comedy has many legal twists as well as songs and dance members. We promise you will not have seen anything quite like it. This play was also performed at SpaceUK between 19–24 August.
Charlotte-Jane Buck
President
