Sub-Treasurer's Report, May 2019

The Treasury Building has now been largely emptied of its contents, prior to handover to the contractor for Project Pegasus on or around 15 May. The contractor can accommodate a short overlap to allow the final items to be removed whilst it does its surveys and investigations. The Library books destined for storage have been cleared out; as have most paintings, the Readers’ shields and furniture. Necessary restoration work is being carried out in parallel where it makes sense to do this. All Hall tables have been disposed of and the Inn’s silver is now variously deposited safely in Middle Temple and at the Goldsmiths’, Pewterers’ and Vintners’ Livery Companies. The marble Pegasus above the back door will be cut out, conserved and stored during the construction works; the Grinling Gibbons wood carving will be dismantled and conserved; and the Steinway piano has been given a temporary home at the Razumovsky Academy, of which Master Rix is a Trustee. The chandeliers have been dismantled for rewiring and storage.

The Sub-Treasurer’s Office, the Treasury team, the Porters and the IT team are now installed in 1 Mitre Court and committee rooms set up there and at 3 KBW (South) - the latter also now houses the residual catering team and student societies. The three new committee rooms have been named Lane, Llewelyn Davies and Williams after well-known female former members of Inner Temple. Almost all of the Inn’s events scheduled in 2019 have been placed in alternative venues (mostly at Kings College London – KCL – and at the Law Society in the case of E&T events) and work has begun to place the 2020 events. Swift progress has been made at 10 Fetter Lane to establish a temporary library and this should open shortly. Circulars from the Treasurer and Sub-Treasurer have kept members and other stakeholders informed of progress and the first of what will be a regular series of newsletters from the contractor has issued.

During the 22-month construction period, it will be crucial for members to check the location of events carefully. Bookings will have to close two weeks in advance of each event and there will be little if any flexibility to make subsequent changes.

Audit fieldwork on the 2018 accounts has now been completed. The Finance Sub-Committee will meet the audit partner for a closing meeting on 24 May before presenting the accounts to the Executive Committee for approval in June.

Thanks are due to Master Southwell for his careful management of the Defined Benefit Pension Scheme. The Inn can take pride in having done well by its staff in this context, while having ensured that the scheme has not become the expensive white elephant which many other organisations are facing.

The Estates Committee met on 15 April. Other than the routine business of the Committee, there were no particular items of interest save for a report on the continuing discussions with Openreach to give it suitable legal rights to install fibre internet connectivity under their partnership agreement with the City of London. Their FTTP project (Fibre To The Premises) will allow chambers and residents access to ultra-fast broadband services if they require this.

New Bar Qualification Rules came into force on 1 April. As part of these rule changes the Inn will no longer be approving Pupil Supervisors and the Bar Standards Board (BSB) are now no longer able to do the checks for the Inn. Those who applied to Inner Temple during this rule change will be informed that they need to seek approval through their Authorised Education & Training Organisations (AETOs). Under the new rules, AETOs are now responsible for appointing suitable pupil supervisors for their pupillages. The AETOs can apply to the Inn for a reference for those who are applying to them to be a pupil supervisor. The Inn’s Pupils Supervisors Sub-Committee has been retained for the time being so it can advise on related training that Inner Temple might wish to continue to offer in 2020. Pupil Supervisor training took place on 2 May at King’s College London.

A Schools Project session was held on 10 April with 97 year 12 and 13 students attending from a range of backgrounds.

A New Practitioners Ethics Evening took place on 29 April, the first event to be held at King’s College London with 40 attendees and 15 group leaders.

The Education and Training Committee met on 30 April and heard a 30 minute presentation from the Director General of the BSB Master Vanessa Davies on the BSB’s Strategic Plan and risk-based approach; the MoU recently signed between the BSB, Council of the Inns of Court (COIC) and the Inns; the new Bar Qualification Rules; and future ethics teaching.

A dinner for Legal Academics was held in Manchester on 1 May. It is planned to hold more such events on circuit during Project Pegasus but also beyond, with a view to thickening up the relationship between Inner Temple and the Circuits.

The Advocacy Training Committee met on 7 May and discussed feedback on the April 2019 New Practitioners Advocacy and Ethics Courses.

Inner Temple has been awarded Silver in Mind’s Workplace Wellbeing Index 2018-2019. This means we are making a positive impact on behalf of our staff in addressing mental health in the workplace. The Collector and Mrs Prayer (who has been primarily responsible for achieving this outcome) attended the 2019 Awards Ceremony on 30 April on behalf of the Inn.

Zakiyah Kihl has been appointed to a newly-established Human Resources Manager position and starts work on 13 May. She will report to the Collector and attend the Sub-Treasurer’s weekly Heads of Department meetings. Her previous employers include Teenage Cancer Trust, Centrepoint and Paperchase.

A successful dinner for New Silks was held at Vintners’ Hall on 8 May attended by 16 out pf 25 of the Inn’s new QCs. As a Searcys venue, it was a pleasure to see many familiar faces amongst the waiting staff. It was also gratifying to be able to use some of the Inn’s silver thanks to the Vintners’ Company’s kind assistance in enabling the Inn to store some of the collection in the Vintners’ vault.

The IT Department has configured network connectivity in the new spaces at Mitre Court and 3 King's Bench Walk. All Treasury, Catering and Porters staff were moved and set up successfully. Wi-Fi has also been enabled in the new locations.

Work is continuing at 10 Fetter Lane to enable network access for the Library. As part of this process, the Inn's firewall software was recently upgraded. The network infrastructure and PC hardware in the old Library has been dismantled and re-used where possible.

Network connectivity has been established at the temporary Library in Fetter Lane. PCs, Wi-Fi and telephones are all functioning correctly.

The Indian High Commissioner attended lunch in Hall on 15 April together with the Treasurer, Master Prandzioch and the Sub-Treasurer. Master Reader-Elect recorded a video interview in April on Mahatma Gandhi’s time at Inner Temple to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth and the award of a US Congressional Gold Medal which commemorates this milestone.

An International Practice Lecture and discussion took place for the first time at Inner Temple on 16 April, chaired by Master Flaux. We plan to repeat this exercise, which was found to be very useful by those who attended.

Master Treasurer lectured to the British Malaysian Society on 24 April on his time as a Supreme Court judge.

The Sub-Treasurer represented Inner Temple at a Vin d’honneur to mark the presentation of Credentials to HM The Queen by the High Commissioner of Bangladesh on 1 May.

Master Beal attended the Central and Eastern European Mooting Competition on behalf of the Inn on 3 to 5 May.

Charlotte Schwendinger has joined the team as the new seasonal gardener. A former garden volunteer at the Inner Temple, Charlotte went on to train at Chelsea Physic Garden before returning in her current role.

The Chelsea Fringe event ‘Tree Adventures and Magical Fairytales’ on Sunday 19 May will feature the Great Big Tree Climbing Company (previously seen on Countryfile Live and at many National Trust open days) taking people up into one of the mature trees. This event has been well received and covered on BBC Radio London on the Vanessa Feltz Breakfast Show, so it looks as if this will be a busy event if the weather is kind. The illustrator and former garden volunteer Isla Simpson has supplied the artwork for the promotional materials for this year’s Garden events, which have received many compliments.

The new irrigation extension is operational and the borehole is now being used for irrigation, though less frequently than was the case during last year’s incessant heat. Overall, there has been a significant reduction in the amount of mains water used to irrigate the Garden. The new garden furniture is proving very popular with residents and visitors.

On 4 June there will be a short re-enactment of “The Misfortunes of Arthur”, a play last performed in 1588 in front of Elizabeth I at Greenwich Palace. The play was written by Gray’s Inn member Thomas Hughes and will be performed by our Drama Society, interspersed with commentary from King’s College Academics, in Temple Church.

History Society lectures are being organised for next year beginning with Dr Susan Brigden who will speak about the impact of the Reformation on the Inns of Court on the 22 January. Master Cryan is liaising with the Chairman of the Selden Society to arrange annual lectures to take place here, starting with one on John Selden (1584–1654). All lectures will take place in Temple Church after Evensong while Project Pegasus is underway.

In a press release embargoed until 10 May, ICCA announced publicly that they had applied to the BSB for authorisation to deliver the new course (which will replace the Bar Professional Training Course), which should lower the cost of training, and reduce risk and increase flexibility for students. The release specifies that ICCA will charge £12,225 overall, split between £1,000 for part one and £11,225 for part two. Students will also need to cover the cost of the BSB’s “intake fee” at £575 for part one and £295 for part two. The overall cost of £13,095 will be just over 30% cheaper than the average fee charged by the London BPTC providers in 2019/20.