President’s Review

INTRODUCTION

President’s Review

DECEMBER 2021

I am both honoured and a little nervous to now be at the head of Hampshire Law Society. Previous Presidents have done such an excellent job I hope to be able to replicate and build on that good work. I must start by thanking my predecessor, James Gleisner. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic James was not able to undertake many of the duties of the President as all events and meetings were cancelled. Nevertheless, James continued to support the society and gave his all in very difficult times and we are extremely grateful.

Each President has their own focus and plan and my objective is to re-engage with the junior lawyers, newly qualifieds and universities. We want to have a major push on connecting with people early on in their journey, whether it is when doing their law degree, at a jobs fair, as trainees or as junior or newly qualified lawyers. This endeavour will involve all of us, we all know someone who is interested in a career in law, is considering their options, is a trainee or has just qualified and we can all engage with them and steer them towards Hampshire Law Society so that our members can help each other. We are strongest when we work together.

I want to continue the hard work that was completed by myself, James Gleisner (past President), Tom Mitchell (Vice-President) and Ian Robinson (Hon. Sec) with the execution of our Business Development Plan. We want to be able to progress in each of the areas so we can move forward and meet our goals.

2020 and 2021 have proven that we all need to be adaptive and HILS is no different, the legal landscape is ever-changing and always was thus. However, the pandemic has put into stark contrast the variety of methods of practising in law, the different ways we need to engage with our membership, the range of courses and educational seminars, lectures and webinars we need to consider, the social and networking events we should put on and the help and support we can offer our members.

All the time we have to be mindful that the society needs to grow and be representative of its membership, we can only do this with your help and engagement.

Part of my role as President is to attend some of our neighbouring local law society and Southern Area Association events and dinners. This is important both to learn from them and share what ideas are working and also to maintain relationships within the profession across borders.

Another area we really want to strengthen is the concept of HILS as a hub for legal jobs within Hampshire. We want to create a ‘jobs board’ which will contain details of all work experience, placement opportunities, summer jobs, training contracts, SQE opportunities and legal jobs from NQ’s to Partner level and all accounts and administration opportunities within the legal arena. To do this we again need your help. We need corporate members to let us know when they have vacancies and opportunities, we need individuals to encourage their employers to sign up to HILS and become involved. So much of the success of HILS depends on our membership.

2022 doesn’t promise anything at present, it is a blank canvas for us to make what we can of it. Let’s make it a good one! ■

Mo Aldridge

Mo Aldridge

President

Hampshire Law Society