benchershipn.
/ˈbɛn(t)ʃəʃɪp/, U.S. /ˈbɛn(t)ʃərˌʃɪp/ Law.
The position or status of a bencher in an Inn of Court.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > legal profession > lawyer > [noun] > member of Inns of Court > position of
benchership1806
1806 B. T. Duhigg Hist. King's Inns iii. 562 Mr. Ponsonby's benchership hung on their pleasure.
1821 C. Lamb in London Mag. Sept. 281/1 They were coevals, and had nothing but that and their benchership in common.
1865 Pall Mall Gaz. 29 Sept. 6/2 A benchership of Gray's-inn has become vacant.
1900 Sheffield & Rotherham Independent 11 Aug. 8/4 It took him 13 years to make his way to his silk and his benchership.
1958 Stud. in Renaissance 5 105 Lincoln's Inn rewarded him with a kind of honorary benchership in 1579.
2004 Independent (Nexis) 19 Mar. 35 Wade's outstanding reputation in academic law was marked by his..Honorary Benchership at Lincoln's Inn.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2017; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
<
n.1806