Elise Baranouski
2024 Temple Bar Scholar Report
I will always remember the month that I spent in London as part of the American Inns of Court’s Temple Bar Scholarship. In that short time, I learned more than I could have imagined about the United Kingdom’s legal system and gained a valuable new comparative perspective on the American legal system. I met so many wonderful people along the way, all of whom were incredibly generous with their time and eager to make my experience an interesting one. I am grateful to them all.
The first week of the program was a whirlwind tour of Legal London. Shepherded along by the inimitable Cindy Dennis, we met with a wide array of important figures in the U.K. legal system, toured the institutions at the heart of that system, and even attended the Opening of the Legal Year at Westminster Abbey. We met with U.K. Supreme Court Justices, the Lady Chief Justice, who presides over the Courts of England and Wales, and several leaders of the bar. Everyone we met with made sure we understood the difference between barristers and solicitors, and apologized for the rain in London, before proceeding to share fascinating reflections on their roles and on the law more generally. We felt able to ask any question we had, and they, in turn, peppered us with interesting questions about the American legal system. It was also during this week that we had the opportunity to tour the historic Inns of Court, which are institutions that provide education, support, and community for barristers in the U.K. It was fun to see the art and historical treasures that the Inns have accumulated over their long existences, and it was lovely to spend time with the barristers and administrators working to ensure that the Inns are fit for purpose today, providing financial support where it is needed and promoting diversity within the bar.
The next two weeks of the program were spent in barristers’ chambers—(4 Pump Court and Erskine Chambers for me)—where we had the opportunity to accompany barristers to court, watch the proceedings in action, and then debrief with the barristers afterwards. Everyone I met in both chambers went out of their way to make me feel welcome and to include me in thinking through the interesting legal issues in their cases, which ranged from complicated company law disputes to LGBTQ rights matters taken on pro bono. One particularly memorable experience was seeing barristers from the same chambers argue against each other in court—a not-uncommon occurrence in the U.K., where each barrister is usually self-employed, but a bit of a legal culture shock to anyone coming from the American legal system. I often learned as much about U.K. law during the barristers’ animated lunchtime conversations as I did in court, and I had a wonderful time.
The final week of the program was spent at the U.K. Supreme Court, where we had the privilege of learning from the Justices and their judicial assistants about the workings of the U.K.’s highest court. They were remarkably generous and took significant time out of their busy schedules to get us up to speed on the cases they would be hearing that week and the mechanisms by which the Court operates. They explained how they decide whether to grant cases, how they prepare for arguments, and how they assign and write opinions. I was struck by the transparency and collegiality of the Court, and I was impressed to see the Justices put so much stock in discussing the cases with each other and the advocates, allotting oral argument time in days rather than hours or minutes. It was also striking to see how little methodological disagreement there was on the U.K. Supreme Court as compared to the U.S. Supreme Court: even where the Justices disagreed on the answer to a difficult legal question, they tended to agree on the methodological approach to answering that question. It was a fascinating and truly eye-opening week, and it was the perfect way to close an incredible month in London.
I am so grateful to everyone at the American Inns of Court who made this experience possible, and everyone in London who made it unforgettable.
Elise Baranouski is a law clerk for Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the Supreme Court of the United States. Baranouski earned a magna cum laude law degree from Harvard Law School in 2020, where she spent two semesters working with the school’s International Human Rights Clinic. She also interned at Reprieve, a London-based organization that aims to reduce capital punishment in the United States by stopping the flow of lethal injection drugs to U.S. prisons. She also interned with the U.S. State Department Office of the Legal Adviser. Before law school, she collaborated with lawyers and activists from around the world to advocate for political prisoners before international tribunals. In 2015, she earned a cum laude undergraduate degree in government and global health and health policy from Harvard College, where she was Phi Beta Kappa. She is the co-author of a forthcoming book chapter on the United Nations human rights system.