I attended my first dinner in Hall shortly after becoming a member of the Inn. It was a Private Guest Night and I knew no one. I had read up on the Rule of Three, checked (and re-checked) the rules for dining in Hall. I remember holding my breath until dinner was over, relieved that no one had frog-marched me out of Hall for breaking any rules.
This week, as I attended my seventh dinner in Hall celebrating our Lent Reader, Master Sharpston, I realised that at some point between the dinners and events at Middle Temple, I had gone from feeling like a gate-crasher at a very fancy party, to feeling like a true member of the Inn and the Rule of Three no longer felt like a scary rule, but an opportunity to speak with incredibly interesting members and their guests.
After all, to the uninitiated, the Inns of Court can look like an impenetrable fortress of elitism, and especially so to someone like me, who, until three years ago, did not know a single barrister. However, my time as President and previously, Vice-President, of the Middle Temple Students’ Association (MTSA) has shown me the immense kindness and support that staff and members of the Inn have for student and junior members.
The MTSA is a wonderfully diverse and complex cohort of students, including those doing their GDL and Bar Course. There are some members joining the Inn straight from their undergraduate degrees, others as career changers, and some having travelled across the world to join as international students. Representing students at the Inn and beyond has been an eye-opening privilege that I would recommend everyone to get involved in.
This year, we have hosted a winter party with the Middle Temple Young Barristers’ Association (MTYBA), run inter-Inn debating sessions, sent a team to the Jessup Moot for the first time (with excellent results!), supported the Inn’s open day, and invited student members from Lincoln’s Inn to join us for a summer soiree. As Middle Templars, we have always known that Middle Temple is the best Inn. But in working with the students’ associations of other Inns, we have now spread that message far and wide. Our proudest achievement this year has been to lead the other Inns’ students’ associations in running a survey on the impact of the change in the pupillage application deadline on students’ experience and wellbeing and providing these findings to the Bar Council.
The Inn has been open and supportive of hearing students’ voices, whether through the MTSA or from individuals. And that of course, sounds incredibly trite; what can a student with little knowledge and experience of the sector possibly offer to a centuries-old institution?
But the more time I have spent at Middle Temple, the more I have realised that the strength of the Inn is in its continuity. Many members of the Inn still speak of the gratitude they have to the Inn for their scholarship awards, while others remind us of the membership and advice they received at the start of their journey. And as the profession diversifies, no two paths to the Bar seem the same anymore, yet every Called member of the Inn has one thing in common: they are fiercely invested in the future of the Bar. It is the investment that was made in them by previous members of the Inn when they were students or early on in their careers, that they now pass on to students.
For them, and hopefully for us students one day, there is a shift from ‘what can the Inn do for me?’ to ‘what can I do for the Inn?’ I am comforted that those we look up to once sat where we now sit, worrying about the exact same things: Bar Course exams, pupillage applications, and making sure your phone alarm doesn’t go off during an event, and if it did, that you remembered to turn it off instead of merely snoozing it in your panic (only for it to ring again in nine minutes). As to the last experience mentioned, I can neither confirm nor deny whether I speak on this from personal experience, of course.
As students there are numerous opportunities to get involved in the Inn, including taking part in ‘Train the Trainer’ sessions, helping out on open days and attending member events. Middle Temple has so much to offer to students, and I have learnt that the more you give back to the Inn in time and energy, the more it offers to you in opportunities, community, and support.
Lastly, it would be remiss to talk about the MTSA without mentioning the Education Department. The Middle Temple’s Education team is the unsung hero that most students do not know about or appreciate enough. From running the scholarship interview days, to providing advice on how to organise a Qualifying Session, and to helping the MTSA Committee organise our events, the MTSA Committee would not be able to do what it does for students, without the support of the Education Team. So, on behalf of the MTSA, the warmest thank you to the Education Team.
As I come to the end of my term as MTSA President in October, I am truly excited for my continued journey at the Inn and for the future generations of students to come. I cannot wait to see where we go on our individual paths and to contribute to the continued success of Middle Temple.
Queenie Sit-Malyali is President of the Middle Temple Students Association. She is a student member of the Inn and an aspiring barrister. While pursuing pupillage opportunities, she is currently a paralegal in the Human Rights, Civil Liberties and Public Law team at Imran Khan and Partners. She was previously co-chair of Young Legal Aid Lawyers and is committed to being a voice for new entrants to the legal profession.
