Inns of Court quietly open applications for big money Graduate Diploma in Law scholarships

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By Alex Aldridge on

Over half a million quid up for grabs for wannabe lawyers

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A huge cash giveaway gets underway this week that sees around £600,000 handed out to wannabe lawyers due to start the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) this autumn.

The holders of the purse strings are the four Inns of Court — Inner Temple, Gray’s Inn, Middle Temple and Lincoln’s Inn — which between them subsidise the education of aspiring barristers.

But Inns of Court being charmingly traditional Inns of Court, who find it rather vulgar to talk about money, the scholarships tend not to be well-publicised.

The result is that many potential top QCs of the future who lack independent means (or parents at the bar who know about the scholarships) miss out on this subsidised route into the profession.

Marketing savvy City law firms — which work hard to promote the generous law school sponsorship packages that they offer — are usually delighted to hoover up such individuals.

Happily, one of the more progressive Inns, Inner Temple, sent a press release around yesterday to flag up that the GDL scholarships are open.

A peruse of its website shows that it is offering students over £200,000 for their GDL year. Meanwhile, Lincoln’s has over £150,000 and Gray’s has £119,000. Middle Temple doesn’t put numbers on its website, but we assume it provides a similar amount. So that makes around £600,000.

It’s worth noting that all scholarships are awarded on the basis of merit, but Inner and Middle also take need into account when determining some awards.

Apply for here Inner, Middle, Lincoln’s or Gray’s — you must select just one — and reduce the chances of an Inn of Court awarding loads of money to the offspring of one of its senior members.

Applications for Inns GDL scholarships close on Friday 6 May. Scholarships for the BPTC can be applied for in autumn.