It eventually developed into an institution of disrepute rather than of respect, and by the time it was dissolved in 1863 it was inhabited by only the worst lawyers.
[1] As a result, the system of legal education fell apart, and the lawyers instead settled immediately outside the City of London as close as possible to Westminster Hall, where Magna Carta provided for a permanent court.
A student would first join one of the Inns of Chancery, where he would be taught in the form of moots and rote learning.
[clarification needed][6] Lyon's Inn became a disreputable institution that "perished of public contempt long before it came to the hammer and the pick".
[7] By the time it was dissolved it was inhabited only by the lowest lawyers and those struck off the rolls, and when surveyed it was found that it was run by only two Ancients, neither of whom had any idea what their duties were, and the Inn had not dined for over a century.