The Hebe Plunkett Award

Awards totalling £10,000 per annum are provided from a sum of money left by Hebe Grace Plunkett (died 1989) to assist disabled students/pupils, including those with impaired eyesight. Blind, partially sighted or otherwise disabled members requiring financial assistance on the CPE / GDL, the BPTC or in pupillage should submit an application form plus two references to the Director of Education.

Reminder of Deadline
The deadline for applications (via the online application system) and references is the first Friday in November.

Those wishing to apply for both a BPTC Scholarship and a Hebe Plunkett Award are to submit only one application (the BPTC Scholarship application form) towards both.

 

The Michael Beloff Essay Prize

• Founded by The Hon Michael Beloff QC, a Master of the Bench, former Treasurer and former President of Trinity College, Oxford.
• Called 1967, Silk 1981, Bencher 1989, Treasurer 2008.
• A prize of up to £1,000 will be awarded for an essay on a selected subject in Administrative Law.

Entrance Factors
Any student of Gray’s Inn who is currently seeking pupillage, or any barrister of the Inn who has been Called to the Bar for a period of not more than twelve months and is currently seeking pupillage is eligible to enter.  In either case the person may not have already gained a Michael Beloff Essay Prize.

The Essay
The subject matter for the essay in each year can be ascertained from the Director of Education and will also be screened, usually three months before it is to be submitted. Every essay must be the original composition of the competitor, be typed on A4 paper (only using one side of each sheet) and not exceed 7,000 words, including footnotes.Essays exceeding the stated length will not be considered.

Submission of Essay
Essays are to be submitted (hard copy or scanned email copy only) to the Director of Education by the specified deadline.  Every essay is to be signed using an assumed name, and the competitor must inform the Director of Education by letter of the assumed name that has been adopted for the purpose of submitting the essay.  When announced, the prize will be advertised on the Gray’s Inn website. The author will be invited to include the winning essay in the Gray’s Inn Student Law Journal.

Deadline
The question is usually screened on the Inn’s website in late November with a closing date for essay submissions in mid February.

The Norman Tapp Memorial Prizes

Three prizes of £325 each will be awarded annually to the best senior Mooters from the Michaelmas Term to the close of Trinity Term. There will be discretion as to the amounts and/or whether to withhold the prizes if the level of attainment is not considered sufficiently high.

The Lee Essay Prize

• Founded by the late John Lee (1783-1866), a Master of the Bench, well known astronomer and Fellow of the Royal Society.
• Elected Treasurer to serve in 1866 but died shortly afterwards.
• 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.

Entrance Factors
Any student of Gray’s Inn, or any barrister of the Inn who has been Called to the Bar for a period of not more than twelve months is eligible to enter.  In either case the person may not have already gained a Lee Essay Prize.

The Essay
The subject matter for the essay in each year can be ascertained from the Director of Education and will also be screened, usually six months before it is to be submitted. Every essay must be the original composition of the competitor, be typed on A4 paper, (only using one side of each sheet), and not exceed 10,000 words.  Essays exceeding the stated length will not be considered.

Submission of Essay
Essays are to be submitted (hard copy or scanned emailed copy only) to the Director of Education by the specified deadline. Every essay is to be signed using an assumed name, and the competitor must inform the Director of Education by letter of the assumed name that has been adopted for the purpose of submitting the essay. When announced, the prize will be advertised on the Gray’s Inn website. The author will be invited to include the winning essay in the Gray’s Inn Student Law Journal.

Deadline
The question is usually screened on the Inn’s website in mid December with a closing date for essay submissions in early May.

The Marion Simmonds Prize

• Founded in memory of the late Master Marion Simmonds QC (1949–2008) by her chambers, 3 – 4 South Square.
• Called 1970, Bencher 1993, Silk 1994.
• A founding member of the Continuing Education Committee responsible for the inception and development of the Inn’s accredited advocacy training.
• The prize of £500 will be awarded to the winner of an advocacy competition open to new practitioner members of the Inn undertaking the Inn’s compulsory advocacy training course in the autumn.  The winner will have demonstrated exceptional skills in advocacy.

The James Hunt Prize

• Founded by the Inn’s Faculty of Advocacy in memory of their beloved friend and colleague, Sir James Hunt, a Master of the Bench, who died in 2006.
• Called 1968, Recorder 1982, Silk 1987, Bencher 1994, Justice of the High Court 2000
• A founder of advocacy training at Gray’s Inn and remembered permanently for this commitment to students of the law by the establishment of the James Hunt Library in Nottingham Trent University.
• A poet, whose own writing he described as “doggerel”, and which has been collected under the title, ‘Therapy

The Trial Exercise is held at the Royal Courts of Justice each spring and marks the fifth and final stage of the pupils’ compulsory advocacy course. 
The James Hunt prize will be awarded by the Inn on the recommendation of the Advocacy Faculty to a pupil who demonstrates the best advocacy performance at the Trial Exercise.

 

The Ede and Ravenscroft Prize
Ede and Ravenscroft donate this prize of a wig and gown each year to a barrister entering pupillage. The winner will be chosen by the Scholarships Committee.