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President's Review
President’s Review
MARCH 2024
I am honoured and daunted in equal measures to now be President of Hampshire Incorporated Law Society (“HILS”).
Mo Aldridge, the outgoing President, has done so much over the last two years to promote HILS and to enhance the connection with our members, for example through social media. She has also connected with universities and as such with students who are just beginning their potential careers in law.
Having worked closely with her for a number of years I have nothing but admiration and respect for what she has done and what she continues to do and thankfully she will remain a major part of the HILS committee as past President. I certainly have big shoes to fill.
With the help of the committee I will do my best to continue the good work already done on behalf of HILS. A special thanks to Mo (who is now Honorary Secretary), Kevin Richardson (Vice President), Nicola Jennings (administrator), Rachel Tombs (marketing) and Ian Robinson (committee member but also a former President, Honorary Secretary and Treasurer).
It is important to build upon the connections made with local universities and engage with students to show them that HILS is relevant and can help the current crop of students through their careers in law. Additionally given the many ways of entering the legal profession we must continue to adapt and evolve.
I firmly believe HILS is of benefit to you, its members. We have lectures, webinars and seminars which we are endeavouring to ensure are relevant and of benefit. We also have a variety of more social and/or networking events such as the quiz, annual dinner, senior partners lunch, bowling evenings, decoupage evening (which I personally really enjoyed last autumn but mum’s the word!) and more.
We strive to be representative of our members which is far easier with two way engagement so we really appreciate you attending events as well as hearing from you. After all, we are here to represent you and support you at a local level. Hopefully we can all help each other.
Each President has their own ideas and what he or she may focus on. As I have already mentioned I want to carry on with the sterling work done by Mo. I would like to see membership grow and if not more importantly more active engagement with our members and the latter clearly takes work on our part as the committee.
However, this also takes some effort on your part as members by reaching out to us. We really do want to hear from you whether it be with ideas for lectures or other events or with concerns or questions you may have with which we might be able to help or support you.
I am fortunate that I will be able to attend some events which will be held by other local law societies. Whilst no doubt being enjoyable on a personal level, these are also good ways of keeping good links with these other local law societies and sharing knowledge and quite possibly finding better ways of doing what we’re trying to do
HILS has been lucky to have had support over the years from many great sponsors without which we would not be able to run all the events. In particular we’d like to thank Andrew Prismall of HW Conveyancing Searches for his ongoing support.
I am looking forward to the year ahead and doing what I can to help HILS and our members. I hope it is a good year for you all. ■
