The Annual Dinner – The Hilton Ageas Bowl

EVENTS

The Annual Dinner – The Hilton Ageas Bowl

Thursday 26 May 2022

Well, the Annual Dinner has now taken place – our first for 3 years and what an occasion it was. We had over 150 attendees, amazing sponsorship from Barclays, Index Property Information and No.18 Chambers allowed for there to be a magician, a photo booth, astonishing photographs from the speaker’s expeditions, a limerick competition and fantastic decorations and atmosphere.

This memorable evening was at the prestigious Hilton at the Ageas Bowl in their Ballroom and we had a sumptuous 3 course meal alongside all the other entertainments and then the presentation of the 2022 Legal Awards and a raffle to raise funds for our charity – Jacksplace.

Jacksplace is the only hospice for young adults in the South of England. It is an environment perfectly suited to their needs and provides the independence, privacy and dignity they deserve. The hospice gives opportunities for the young adults to socialise and relax, whilst their complex medical needs are being met. Jacksplace is linked with Naomi House and between them they provide hospice care for children between 0 and around 30 years of age. It costs £7.2million per year to run the centres and they receive less than 10% of their funding from the Government. Currently they are supporting around 1200 families and so it is with great pleasure that HILS hope to support them this year both in events they are running and in raising money at our own functions.

We were also privileged to have an after dinner speaker: Ann Daniels – a Polar Explorer and Motivational Speaker. She is the first woman in history, along with teammate Caroline Hamilton, to reach the North Pole and the South Pole as members of an all-women team. She is among the very few people in the world who have walked to both the North and South Geographical poles. Her polar expedition career started in 1996. Although she had no previous outdoor experience and was a mother of 18-month-old triplets, she beat off over 200 other women on a tough Dartmoor selection weekend to join the first team of the McVities Penguin Polar Relay. She has led three major scientific expeditions on the Arctic Ocean, working with scientists to better understand the problems facing the fragile Ocean environment and her achievements have been recognised and rewarded by many including: The Guinness Book of Records, The Pride of Britain Awards and The Women of the Year Awards. Her talk was both inspirational and scary, particularly when detailing her encounters with a polar bear, she was animated and engaging and everyone agreed it was a wonderful finale to the speeches and toasts.

Following the above we had the 2022 Legal Awards. Very well done to all who were nominated and of course our Runners Up and Winners set out below:

WINNER Medium Firm of the Year

Phillips Solicitors

RUNNER UP Medium Firm of the Year

Downie & Gadban

WINNER Lawyer of the Year

Jack Gardener, Phillips Solicitors

RUNNER UP Lawyer of the Year

Jessica Measham

WINNER Junior Lawyer of the Year

Annie Hodjat, Dutton Gregory

RUNNER UP Junior Lawyer of the Year

Daniel Norris, Churchers Solicitors

We were extremely lucky to have some very generous raffle prizes donated and we finished on a high with these being drawn. We raised an amazing £822.00 for our charity which Jasper Vincent Solicitors kindly made up to £1,000.00. Index Property Information then thoughtfully donated a further £250.00 so in all we were able to give Jacksplace £1,250.00 from the evening. A brilliant effort by everyone to raise money for a very worthy and local charity for which they were very grateful.

The evening concluded with some relaxed social time and mingling. All in all it was a very well attended and fun evening and we hope that everyone will attend next year and bring all their friend and colleagues. ■