New Practitioners - 2025 Courses

In the first three full years of practice (either from taking up tenancy or commencing a 3rd six), newly qualified practitioners are required to complete 45 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) including at least 9 hours of Advocacy Training and 3 hours of Ethics.

The Inner Temple runs its New Practitioners' Advocacy Course twice each year, in April and June.

The New Practitioners courses will run as a mixture of online and in-person training events. There will be an in-person residential weekend in April and June 2025. As usual, the courses will be focused on handling expert witnesses, using a forensic accountancy case in April, and a medical case in June. The expert handling skills that the courses deal with are applicable to all fields of expertise, and all jurisdictions, including civil, crime and family.

The cost of the course will be £260, which includes accommodation and meals at the residential weekend, and transport by coach between London and the residential weekend venue for those requiring it.

Course A

• Monday 7 and Tuesday 8 April, 6pm-7.45pm - ONLINE Case Conference session (You will be assigned to one evening only).
  In this session will have the opportunity to pose questions to our experts ahead of the residential weekend.
• Friday 11 April (6pm) to Sunday 13 April (1pm) - Residential Weekend - The Berystede Hotel & Spa, Ascot.
  You will have a  Case Analysis session (Friday evening), and be reviewed on examination/cross-examination of expert witnesses (Saturday) and Lay witness handling/closing speeches (Sunday), using the Advanced Hampel Method.

Course B

• Monday 23 and Tuesday 24 June, 6pm-7.45pm - ONLINE Case Conference session (you will be assigned to one evening only).
  In this session will have the opportunity to pose questions to our experts ahead of the residential weekend.
• Friday 27 June (6pm) to Sunday 29 June (1pm) - Residential Weekend - The Berystede Hotel & Spa, Ascot.
  You will have a Case Analysis session (Friday evening), and be reviewed on examination/cross-examination of expert witnesses (Saturday) and Lay witness handling/closing speeches (Sunday) using the Advanced Hampel Method.

Please note it is not possible to mix and match between sessions from Course A and Course B - you will need to be able to attend the case conference evening and the residential weekend for the same course. The course will provide you with 9 full advocacy hours of CPD, and 8 ‘general’ hours of CPD, which both count towards the 45 hours of CPD you need to complete in your New Practitioner period.

Our Ethics Course will run as "live" online sessions, chaired by established practitioners, in which ethical questions will be discussed with other New Practitioners (NPs).

There is also some background reading to be done in advance of the course, and two short online interactive sessions (one before and one after the live session), which can be completed in your own time.

All sessions will take place in the evening from approx. 6-7.30pm. Ethics Course Dates tbc. 

NPs can attend any of the ethics sessions, regardless of which advocacy course they are on - it does not matter if you do the ethics course before or after the advocacy course. The course will provide you with the full 3 hours of ethics CPD that you are required to complete as part of your 45 hours CPD as a New Practitioner. There is no additional charge for the ethics course for those taking part in the advocacy course. For any NPs needing to do the ethics course but not advocacy, there will be a nominal charge of £10 to cover registration.

We will be doing all we can to ensure as many members as possible are able to complete a course. Priority will be given to those in their final NP year, and those for whom 2023 (or earlier) was their final NP year.

In the interest of fairness, we operate a ballot system. You will be able to indicate your situation and preferences for the course via an online survey.

The ballot will open in December 2024.