The President’s Foreword

AUGUST 2020

After a glorious summer, though with many plans interrupted, not many in the profession are facing a return to a normal routine. The impact of COVID-19 on the legal sector is concerning from many different angles. Some of our members have not been able to take time off and have continued to be glued to computer screens, all this whilst there have been salary cuts and the increased fear of redundancies in the autumn. There are stories of an alarming number of colleagues on furlough facing redundancy and firms having to close whole departments. Newly qualified solicitors are not being retained and offers are being withdrawn. Criminal Solicitors and Legal Aid practitioners are amongst those most affected yet again in this crisis and they need our support.

We are witnessing the Justice System going through a forced reform and we need more than ever to get involved. If we don't take action, justice will become a privilege for the wealthy few. The Law Society Council Member elections are coming up. This Society has two seats in contention and the statements of the nominees can be found in this edition. If you have not done so yet, I encourage you to vote and also to get involved with us, your local Society.

This edition of our magazine has some very interesting pieces with articles on how to help affected lawyers; how to be more productive when working from home from Sarah Bradd; on workers’ rights in the current environment by Neta Meidav; as well as all of our usual updates and features, including a look at international arrest warrants by Michael Polak and Rumer Ramsey.

I am really pleased to have received emails from our members indicating how important our webinars have been for them during this difficult time. We have adapted well to our new way of meeting, training and discussing what concerns us. Despite the current restrictions, we have continued to meet remotely and have had interesting and helpful webinars from employment law to tips on communicating online from Sylvia Cohen. A very thoughtful roundtable meeting, 'Legally Disabled?' was organised jointly with South London Law Society and The Law Society’s Lawyers with Disabilities Division, at which research undertaken by Cardiff University was presented and discussed. It was positive to hear how our colleagues with disabilities are benefiting in the new remote working era. My special thanks to Professor Sara Chandler QC (Hon) for organising the event and to Jane Burton for sharing the findings of this research with us.

We have continued to strengthen our relationship with other European colleagues. The Society was invited to visit the Law Society of Cluj in Romania in the first week of July following the visit by our Romanian friends to London in 2018. Not being able to travel, we still met remotely and information about the discussions we had can be found on page 8. We will continue with these European exchanges as soon as we can, ever more important given the implications of Brexit.

Please continue to send us your proposals for webinars and do join our committees if you wish to be more vocal. ■

Carolina Marín Pedreño

President

Westminster & Holborn Law Society