Thirty Five Years Have Passed Since I was Called To The Bar of England and Wales

A photograph of me on Call Night at the Middle Temple, left, and a record of my Call to the Bar of England & Wales in the Daily Telegraph, Tuesday, February 5^th, 1991.

Last month marked 35 years since my Call to the Bar of England and Wales at the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple during Michaelmas Term, 1991.

I had been among the pioneer intake of the Bar Vocational Course which had been inaugurated by the Council of Legal Education (CLE) at the Inns of Court, School of Law (ICSL). The CLE, a supervisory body established to by the four Inns of Court to regulate the legal education of barristers in England and Wales, founded the School in 1852.

Call Night did not only signify the passing of formal assessments, it represented the culmination of keeping dining terms, that is, attending 12 formal dinners at my Inn, the Middle Temple.

The origins of the Middle Temple lie in the acquisition by lawyers in the 14^th century of land that had once been the site of the headquarters of the Knights Templar before their overthrow and abolishment. King James I formal granted the Temple estate to the Inns of Court by letters patent in 1608. This Charter established that the land be used to educate and accommodate lawyers in perpetuity.

Among the famous members of the Middle Temple were the writers Charles Dickens and John Buchan.

I was called at Middle Temple Hall, an Elizabethan building which survived the Great Fire of London in 1666.

© Adeyinka Makinde (2026).

Adeyinka Makinde is based in London, England.