As explained under “Barristers” above, anyone aspiring to such a career must take training at one of London’s four “Inns of Court.” These are ancient institutions fulfilling the role of colleges of legal education for barristers and for maintaining professional standards. In addition to offices, apartments and a dining hall, each institution has a meeting hall, which originally featured a barrier or partition, “the bar,” separating the candidates from the fully-qualified members. When the senior members were satisfied with a candidate’s level of knowledge, that individual would be “called to the bar” to join the privileged members on the other side (54, 106, 178, 245). In short, “to be called to the bar” means to become accepted as a fully qualified barrister. The bar, incidentally, is also a collective term for the entire profession of barristers.
When I, good friends, was called to the bar