Andreas Malekos

Prestigious Inner Temple scholarship for Kent student

Kent Law student Andreas Malekos is one step closer to achieving his ambition of becoming a barrister after being awarded a prestigious scholarship of almost £20,000 by the Inner Temple.

The Inner Temple BPTC (Bar Professional Training Course) Scholarship of £19,700 will help support Andreas during his year of vocational training. The BPTC is designed to equip Andreas with the skills, knowledge, attitudes and competence to prepare for pupillage, the next stage in his professional training.

Andreas was interviewed at the Inner Temple, one of four Inns of Court that aspiring barristers are required to join, in March. After being taken to the Inn’s magnificent library, he was given half an hour to read an unreported case from a choice of three in his chosen area of law. He chose a criminal case involving psychoactive substances (legal highs), a topic he had studied in Public Law 2 the previous year.

He was then interviewed by a panel of four Inner Temple barristers, two of whom were Queen’s Counsel. Andreas said: ‘The panel members were incredibly charming and I immediately felt more at ease. I was first asked to analyse the case which I did by summarising the arguments made and the decision given. I was then asked for my opinion on the case – I criticised the judge for the lack of expert evidence referred to when reaching the decision that nitrous oxide (laughing gas) was not a medicinal substance.’

Andreas plans to begin his BPTC at City Law School in September. Although his main interests currently lie in both Criminal Law and Property Law, he says he is yet to come across an area of law that he doesn’t enjoy and will approach the BPTC with an open mind.