1. Any of four autonomous institutions, one or more of which English barristers must join to receive their training and of which they remain members for life: The Honourable Societies of Lincoln’s Inn, the Middle Temple, the Inner Temple, and Gray’s Inn. • These powerful bodies examine candidates for the Bar, “call” them to the Bar, and award the degree of barrister.
“It is impossible to fix with certainty the period when the professors and students of the common law first began to associate themselves together as a society, and form themselves into collegiate order; or to assign an exact date to the foundation of the Inns of Court, the original institution of which nowhere precisely appears…. After the fixing of the Court of Common Pleas by Magna Charta, the practitioners of the municipal law took up their residence in houses between the king’s courts at Westminster and the city of London — forming then one community; and before the end of the reign of Edward II, they appear to have divided themselves into separate inns or colleges, at Temple Bar, Lincoln’s Inn, and Gray’s Inn.” Robert H. Pearce, A Guide to the Inns of Court and Chancery 1–2 (1855).
2. (pl.) In the United States, an organization (formally named the American Inns of Court Foundation) with more than 100 local chapters, whose members include judges, practicing attorneys, law professors, and law students. • Through monthly meetings, the chapters emphasize practice skills, professionalism, and ethics, and provide mentors to train students and young lawyers in the finer points of good legal practice.
