Internship Awards

The Inn, with the help of a generous grant from a trust set up in memory of Sir Joseph Priestley, makes a small number of awards each year for the purposes of enabling students and newly qualified barristers to pursue projects that will widen their experience of the world outside the bar, and thereby enhance the skills that they can thereafter bring to their practice.

Although any project meeting these criteria will be considered, preference will generally be given to projects with an international element and/or which involve an element of unpaid or low paid work for the community. In making these awards, the Committee will take into account (in addition to the usual criteria relating to merit, resources and need) the likely value to the profession and/or the public good of the candidate’s proposed use of the award. A total of £29,250 is available for such awards.

Eligibility

Any member of the Inn may apply for the Inn’s Internship Awards. 

Any member of the Inn may apply for the Inn’s Internship Awards. The Sir Joseph Priestley Scholarships can only be awarded to barristers of less than 3 years’ call. Candidates who expect to be called imminently may nevertheless apply prior to call, but may not take up their award until they have been called. (So, for example, students expecting to be called to the Bar in July may apply in May for an award to be taken up for a project to be carried out during the summer vacation between call and starting pupillage.) Preference for all such awards will normally be given to those who have not previously received and taken up such an award. Internship Awards and Sir Joseph Priestley Scholarships are given only for identified projects. If the project is not carried out within 12 months of the award, the award will lapse, and any money received must be returned. Permission will not usually be given to defer the taking up of an Internship Award or a Sir Joseph Priestley Scholarship. However, if your intended placement gets postponed until 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, you will be permitted to defer your award until for one year.

Application procedure

Applications for 2023 are now closed. The 2024 round of applications will open on 2nd April 2024, and close in mid-May.

In order to apply for a scholarship you will be required to submit an online application form, which will be linked below, when the application window is open.

The application form is broken down into 7 sections – contact information; educational details; legal and non-legal work experience; proposal for internship; financial circumstances; references and equality monitoring. In the "Proposal for Internship" section you will be asked to provide full details of youir intended project, how it meets the criteria for an award, the likely cost, any additional or alternative sources of funding, and the amount sought from the Inner Temple.

Applications for 2023 are now closed

References

Applicants are required to arrange for two references to be included in support of an application, which can be either academic or professional references.  All referees should have known the applicant for at least 6 months, and references should be as detailed as possible. Please note that family members cannot provide references.

As part of the application form, applicants will be required to provide the names and contact details for their referees. An automatic email will then be sent to the referees, asking them to upload their reference directly to us.

Interview Process

In the last round of Internship Award applications, the Inner Temple interviewed every applicant. It is the Inn's intention, numbers permitting, to continue to offer interviews to all candidates that apply for an Internship Award.

In 2022, interviews for the Internship awards will be held on the evenings of Thursday 9 and Friday 10 June. In mid-May, applicants will be invited to book an interview slot on one of these interview dates. We recommend holding both dates available in your diary until you receive your invitation to book your interview.

Please note that interviews for the Internship Awards will be held online, via Zoom.

Interviews are conducted by a panel for 4 members of the Inn, and last approximately 20 minutes. All panel members will have been sent your application form prior to the interviews. The questions asked will be based on information from your application form and the placement you have proposed.

After the interviews, results are usually distributed within 2 weeks, via email.

For more information contact the Scholarships and Students Manager