The Inn provides several scholarships and prizes in addition to our major GDL, Bar Course and Pupillage Scholarships.
- The Hebe Plunkett Scholarships
The Hebe Plunkett Scholarships
Hebe Plunkett Scholarships support student or pupil Members of the Inn who will incur additional expenditure during their law conversion course, Bar course or pupillage training, due to a disability or a chronic health condition.
Application status: Closed
Applications open 8 September 2025 Applications deadline 17 November 2025 - The Gide / Gray's Inn French-English Law Essay Prize
The Gide / Gray’s Inn French-English Law Essay Prize
- Application status: Closed
Since 2022 Gray’s Inn has collaborated with Gide on a French-English Law Essay Prize.
The prize is open to all individuals who have been in full-time legal education for no more than six years and were still in education during academic year 2024/2025. There is no requirement for entrants to the competition to be a member of Gray’s Inn.
The winner of the competition will receive a prize of £1,500 plus a two-week paid internship with Gide’s London office; the runner-up will receive a prize of £1,000. The winning author’s essay will be published in the Inn’s Student Law Journal and on the Gide website.
For the 2025 prize, the essay question is:
If you were advising an entrepreneur starting up a company that develops and sells AI products would you encourage them to do so under the French or English legal system?
You may wish to consider: would your advice assume the products were sold and used globally and would it matter whether they were goods or services or a mixture of both.
Note: In answering this question, have in mind that you are writing advice as if you were a legal adviser explaining in English to an entrepreneur starting up a company that develops and sells AI products the relative advantages, disadvantages, risks etc. of doing so under French and English law. Express yourself clearly and directly and in explaining the law and legal implications accurately consider their practical application in a commercial context.
The essay should be the sole creation and original work of the entrant and must not be longer than 2,500 words.
All entries are to be written in English and submitted by email to Gide at essayprize@gide.com by the end of the day on Sunday 14 September 2025.
The Panel of Judges for the 2025 prize is as follows:
- Sir Andrew McFarlane (Vice Treasurer of Gray’s Inn and President of the Judging Panel)
- Saadia Bhatty (Partner, Gide London)
- Michael Butcher (President of the Franco-British Data Society and Bencher of Gray’s Inn)
- Michael Collett, KC (Barrister at 20 Essex Chambers and Bencher of Gray’s Inn)
- Dr Catherine Pedamon (Senior Lecturer, Westminster Law School)
- The Michael Beloff Essay Prize
The Michael Beloff Essay Prize
- Question released: 14 July 2025
- Deadline for submission: 22 September 2025
- Application status: Closed
A prize of up to £1,000 will be awarded for an essay on a selected subject in Administrative Law. The winning entry will be published in the Gray’s Inn Student Law Journal.
Rules
- This competition is open to any member of the Inn who has not received a pupillage offer by the essay submission deadline
- Previous winners of this essay prize are ineligible
- Applicants must intend to practice at the Bar of England and Wales
- Essays must be original compositions between 3,000 to 5,000 words (including footnotes)
- Essays must conform to our Style Guide for submissions (PDF)
Application and deadline
- The essay question and application deadline has been released in our July news and on the Inn’s social media
- You must submit a PDF version of your essay using the online form.
- The Lee Essay Prize
The Lee Essay Prize
- Question released: 14 July 2025
- Deadline for submission: 22 September 2025
- Application status: Closed
A first prize of up to £1,500 and a second prize of up to £500 will be awarded for an essay on a selected subject on the Common or Statute Law of England and Wales. The winning entry will be published in the Gray’s Inn Student Law Journal.
Rules
- This competition is open to any member of the Inn who has not received a pupillage offer by the essay submission deadline
- Previous winners of this essay prize are ineligible
- Applicants must intend to practice at the Bar of England and Wales
- Essays must be original compositions between 3,000 to 5,000 words (including footnotes)
- Essays must conform to our Style Guide for submissions (PDF)
Application and deadline
- The essay question and application deadline has been released in our July news and on the Inn’s social media
- You must submit a PDF version of your essay using the online form
- Nicholls Prize
Nicholls Prize
Awarded annually to the winner of the Gray’s Inn Moot Competition.
The prize is generously made available by Three Raymond Buildings (3RB) in honour of Clive Nicholls QC a Bencher of the Inn.
- The Norman Tapp Memorial Prizes
- Funding for The South Eastern Circuit, Tim Dutton CBE KC, Advance International Advocacy Course 2025
Funding for The South Eastern Circuit, Tim Dutton CBE KC, Advanced International Advocacy Course 2025
Each year, we will provide scholarship funding for up to five Members to attend The Advanced International Advocacy Course.
The aim of this course is to encourage and develop the highest standards of advocacy amongst practitioners in England & Wales. The course is the most demanding and intensive of any advocacy course in the UK and is widely said to be the best advocacy course in the world.
To qualify for the course, you must join the South Eastern Circuit and be a practising member of the Bar, over three years’ call, and post NPP at the time of attending the course.
The course will take place from Tuesday 26 August 2025 until Saturday 30 August 2025, in person, at Keble College, Oxford.
To apply for this scholarship, you must complete both the application form and the Inns’ scholarships application form and submit them together, both of which can be accessed via the below link.
The deadline to apply for the Keble Scholarship is Thursday 1 May 2025.
- Scholarships administered by other Inns
Scholarships administered by other Inns
Pegasus Scholarships
The four Inns support the Pegasus Scholarship Scheme which offers tenants and employed barristers within five years of practice the opportunity to travel abroad and work as lawyers in other common law jurisdictions and the European Union.
A host law firm assists the scholar to find accommodation and provides expenses. Scholarships usually start in July and last for three months, but arrangements are necessarily dependent on what is suitable to the host firm. There are up to 12 scholarships annually to the following countries: Uganda, Bermuda, India, Dubai, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, USA and countries of the EU. The Trust also welcomes the opportunity to support scholars in placements they have personally arranged.
- Applications usually open in October and close in November
- Open to tenants and employed barristers of the four Inns within five years of practice
- Funded by the four Inns of Court
- Administered by Inner Temple
- Further information is available from Inner Temple
Harold G. Fox Scholarships
The Harold G. Fox Fund was established to enable Members of the Inns to undertake a one year ‘placement’ in the litigation department of a large Toronto law firm, arranged by the Trustees of the Fund in Toronto, or a post-graduate degree at a university in Ontario for which candidates make their own arrangements.
- Applications usually close in January
- Open to Members of the four Inns that are under five years’ Call, or about to be called
- Administered by Middle Temple
- Further information is available from Middle Temple
EFTA Court, Luxembourg
One or more scholarships may be awarded each year. The scholarship provides for a monthly stipend of €2,500 to enable the recipient after qualification as a barrister (i.e. a student post Bar Course or a young barrister) to spend three months under supervision in the chambers of President Carl Baudenbacher. Applicants need to have a strong interest in and demonstrate a good knowledge of EU/EEA law.
- Applications usually close in May
- Open to Members of the four Inns that have been called, or are about to be called
- Administered by Lincoln’s Inn
- Further information is available from Lincoln’s Inn