5 minute read
President's Review
President’s Review
NOVEMBER 2023
Well here we are the end of another year. It is also the end of my Presidency and I am honoured to have served 2 years representing the members of Hampshire Law Society. I must of course thank the committee for their unwavering support and hard work. So much goes on in the background of volunteer organisations and committees and HILS is no exception. The dedication shown by my colleagues is remarkable and I am grateful for all the work that has been done by everyone.
As I step down, I am able to look back with pride over what I consider to be a very successful 2 years. My focus when I started out in 2021 was to adapt HILS and drive our social media and engagement with our members and I believe that we have made a very good start on this and I am confident that the incoming President and continuing committee members will carry on that trend. Coming out of the pandemic and re-building the society and having a massive push on membership engagement has been at the heart of all our decisions and I am pleased to say I think we have achieved this. We have been able to offer our continued CPD lecture series, as well as augment this with more social activities and events. We have re-invigorated our social media presence and now regularly update and post about what we are doing and what is going on and we have seen increased membership response as a result, which is fantastic.
Part of the Presidents role is to attend various functions as a representative of HILS but also to engage with the other neighbouring law societies. Throughout my time I have attended a variety of these events, some of which are social and some of which have been educational. HILS is a member of the Southern Area Association of Law Societies and through that we have a broader network of contacts and other like minded firms and individuals. This has been invaluable and we will continue to make use of those connections to enhance HILS offering to its members.
We have persisted in responding to Law Society consultations, ensuring that our members have their voices heard and that their comments make their way back to the national settings. We have attended the SRA, COLP and COFA conference and various AML conferences. We have followed updates in the codes of conduct and rule changes as well as the ever-shifting legal landscape
in general. We have started preparing the lecture and social programmes for next year to incorporate all that has been learned as well as that which has been requested and notified to us.
We are very happy to have partnered with Rachel Tombs of Orion Legal Marketing and have already seen great successes in events that we have organised through and with her. It is anticipated that with her involvement we will be able to offer even more opportunities and events as well as secure more sponsorship thus further enhancing what we can achieve. Many thanks to Rachel for her support and dedication to championing local law societies.
HILS is also proud to have been invited to assist in the setting up of the Hampshire Pro-Bono Committee. Working with the Access to Justice Foundation, Citizen Advice, LawWorks, the University of Southampton Law School and others HILS will be championing probono activities and access to justice for all. If anybody is interested in volunteering for this endeavour or indeed on the HILS committee then please do make contact with us.
We are about to begin a complete overhaul of the HILS website. We are very keen that this should be a valuable resource and as such we would welcome feedback and any ideas from our members as to what they would find useful. We want to strengthen 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. The legal landscape should be one of supporting each other and helping people rather than focused on competition and that starts with championing all firms and individuals in all walks of their legal career.
I wish every success to the next President and look forward to the ongoing growth and development of HILS. Thank you everyone and here’s to a fun and lively 2024! ■
