Program Details

Introduction to the English Legal System
The initial week of lectures is designed to give our law students a grounding in fundamental aspects of the English legal system.

Not only will these sessions familiarize students with some of the more important highlights of English practice and procedure, but also they will help to prepare them to enter the chambers more fully equipped to get the very most of their internship during the second portion of the program.

Pupillage: The English Legal Tradition
During the period of the internship or pupillage, our law students will be assigned--just as is every newly qualified English barrister--to a member of chambers who will act as their pupil-master with whom they will attend court and client conferences and whom they will help to draft pleadings and other documents and conduct research.

By undergoing pupillage, our law students will be traveling down the same vocational training path completed by countless generations of lawyers before them. This "hands on" approach to learning the law has long been an important and integral feature of the English barrister's and solicitor's education.

The School of Law is fortunate to enjoy the support of a highly dedicated and loyal team of enthusiastic barristers who have over the years demonstrated a deep commitment to ensuring that their American students from Roger Williams University School of Law have a memorably educative and enjoyable experience.

Students will be able to see a wide range of areas of practice that include common law, crime, family law, and commercial law so that they can return home with a complete picture of life at the English Bar.

In addition to their work in chambers, our students are required to complete a number of oral and written exercises of the type undertaken by new practitioners. These exercises will be graded. (Resource materials will be available in chambers as will the counsel of the pupil-master and other colleagues.)

Study In Legal London
The first part of the program will be held at the Inner Temple, one of the four historic Inns of Court, the traditional training institution for British barristers in the very heart of legal London.

The Inns of Court, the Royal Courts of Justice, and the Central Criminal Court (popularly known as the Old Bailey) are all immediately nearby.

Our barristers' chambers are located within the environs of the celebrated Four Inns of Court, universally regarded as one of the most historic and, indeed architecturally, significant parts of London.