Leading lights open Bar training centre

FOUR of the profession's leading women gathered at the Inns of Court School of Law last week at the opening of its £1m training centre.

Cherie Booth QC, who officially opened the centre, was joined by Bar Council chairman Heather Hallett QC, Lady Justice Butler-Sloss and the Director of Public Prosecutions, Dame Barbara Mills QC.

The Legal Training Resource Centre at Gray's Inn Place contains 40 personal computers, with a further 50 situated at the School's Princeton Street site. Students have access to online legal services and the Internet.

Students no longer need to compete for library books as they can now access course texts online. A future is envisaged in which the school's 750 students will be able to use the centre from home.

The opening, seven weeks behind schedule, has transformed what was a famously gloomy lecture hall into a modern library. Booth said: 'I am not a former student of this school but I know a certain Prime Minister who was, and I remember his complaints about this particular building.'

School Principal Professor Richard Stone said the use of technology could make 'tenfold savings' of time and money.