London Legal History Tour with The Four Inns of Court

So, today I took an outstanding Legal London Tour of the 4 Inns of Court; Middle Temple, Inner Temple, Lincoln’s Inn and Gray’s Inn. To practice law in Wales or England, an attorney must be admitted into one of these Inns, similar to an attorney in the US being required to be admitted into the state bar in the state in which he or she practices. The highlight of the tour for me was being able to sit in on an oral argument of a court martial criminal conviction before the Criminal Court of Appeals located at the Royal Courts of Justice on Fleet Street (Although most criminal trials in London take place at the Old Bailey Criminal Court, appeals of criminal convictions are heard at the Royal Courts of Justice). The appellate panel was composed of 3 judges, two male and one female, all clad in legal garb, including wigs. The attorneys for the accused, also sporting wigs, presented their arguments from the left side, while the attorneys for the crown presented from the right hand side. Few questions were asked of the judges of the attorneys arguing the case, but just seeing the legal system in action was intellectually stimulating to me. After the tour, my guide was kind enough to secure a table for lunch for me at Society of the Middle Temple Hall, which is a great hall with long dining tables running the length of the hall à la Harry Potter movies, normally reserved for judges and attorneys to take their lunch. The Hall is historic, dating back to the 16th century, lined with armor of that era, as well as portraits of Charles I and his sons Charles and James, along with Prince William ‘Billy’ of Orange . I was particularly interested in seeing up close a table at the far end of the hall reserved for the more senior members of Inn to dine. The table was gifted to the Middle Temple Inn by Queen Elizabeth I, it being harvested on the forested land near Windsor Castle, floated down the River Thames, and cut up and made into this gigantic table. Well, there were still senior members of the Inn dining at one end of the table, and when I inquired of my different servers if I could approach the end of the table that was unoccupied to glimpse the table up close, they immediately became nervous and said I would have to check with a higher level supervisor (clearly and understandably not wanting to put their employment at the hall in jeopardy). So, after finishing and paying for my lunch, I introduced myself to a young girl who appeared to be in a position of authority, told her I was a practicing attorney from the US state of Arizona, and began vividly describing to her my adventures into Scotland, Ireland, and England (Wales is on the horizon), including the gripping details of the Shetland Islands murder trial I sat through in Edinburgh last year, and how I had to sign a privacy (for the Brits, the i is pronounced like the i in the word print) waiver, as I was seated in the front row of the galley, and a film crew was recording the trial for a future documentary, and my image would be prominently displayed given the location of my seat. Well, it turns out the girl was in charge of all dining and social events at the hall, and happened to be a big fan of cold case and unsolved mystery shows, and told me that if I could wait a few minutes for the lunch hour to end, I could view the Elizabethan era table as part of a tour of the entire Middle Temple Hall she was hosting for some other guests. I immediately took her up on her offer, as my virtual court hearing was not until a couple more hours. So, it turns out that the tour I “crashed” was composed of a handful of British retirees. I visited with them prior to the start of our tour, and attempted to mesmerize them by the stories of my adventures, and especially my fascination with the history of their culture, and things I have done in the British Isles. When one mentioned they loved Arizona, I had to throw out my favorite line of ‘only mad dogs and Englishmen, go out in the midday sun’, causing them to break out into uncontrollable laughter. Well, the tour began, and I very much enjoyed it. As we stopped in one room, the guide pointed out that several American colonists had attended the Middle Temple Inn, members that had at a later time signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the Constitutional Convention in 1787. She then made the point that, despite the contributions of the Middle Temple Court to the future success of these young men, they later turned on the country of their benefactor by engaging in rebellious and hostile actions. Well, as the only American in the group, I couldn’t let that comment go unchecked. So, not wanting to get into a donnybrook and because I enjoyed the camaraderie of my new found friends, I simply and laughingly stated, ‘well, its not quite as simple as that’ and again the Brits were in fits of laughter and it all blew over without incident. And voila, there you have my first full day in London.

Emma was terrific - knowledgeable, engaging, and thoughtful about addressing our interests. We would take a tour with her anywhere!

We thoroughly enjoyed our tour with Emma. Her insight into the British legal system, as well as her extensive knowledge of art and literature made the tour very enjoyable.