Elections for Masters of the Bench (also known as ‘Benchers’) are held during Trinity term each year. Elections for Royal and Honorary Benchers are held during Michaelmas term each year.
You can find details regarding the election procedure in Standing Orders (order 13) and the Inn’s rules (Rule 4). Recent elections are also published in News.
Recent Elections
Masters of the Bench
- The Honourable Mr Justice Robert Bright – election as a Master of the Bench by acclamation on 18 January 2023
Those named below were elected Masters of the Bench at the Trinity Election in July 2023:
- Eleanor Platt KC
- Christopher Melton KC
- His Honour Judge Avik Mukherjee
- Andrew Singer KC
- Ivan Hare KC
- His Honour Judge Jonathan Carroll
- Owen Thomas KC
- James Maxwell-Scott KC
- Fiona Scolding KC
- Sophie Lamb KC
- Lucy Garrett KC
- Laura Johnson KC
- Douglas Wilson OBE
- Ayanna Nelson
- Simao Paxi-Cato
Honorary Benchers
Those named below were elected Honorary Benchers on 18 October 2023:
- Professor Simon Armitage CBE, FRSL – The Poet Laureate, Professor of Poetry at Leeds University and formerly Professor of Poetry at Oxford University
- Professor Julia Black PBA – President of the British Academy and Professor of law
- Lord Evans of Weardale KCB DL – Former Director General of the Security Service; currently Chair Committee on Standards in Public Life
- Hon. Justice Stephen Gageler AC – Senior High Court Judge of Australia, Chief Justice of Australia Designate
- Justice Katerina Stamatiou – President of the Supreme Court of Cyprus – Member of the Inn
- Justice Sharise Weiner SC – Justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals in South Africa – Member of the Inn
- Bishop Michael Doe – the former Inn’s Preacher, was elected as an Honorary Bencher under the Fast Track procedure.