President’s Jottings

INTRODUCTION

President’s Jottings

SPRING 2021

As we start to ease our way out of the third national lockdown and with the COVID-19 vaccination programme well underway, these are my final jottings as President of SLS in what has been a year or so in lockdown.

When I took office around 17 months ago, I had plans in place for a great term and had some key focus areas for the Society, including:

■ ensuring we support our members with learning and development by providing a top class training and development programme;

■ building on the SLS Legal Awards evening and providing a social programme that enables members to network with colleagues and peers, but also other professionals; and

■ strengthening relationships with sponsors, supporters and Surrey Junior Lawyers Division (formerly Young Surrey Lawyers).

It is fair to say that things got off to a flyer with regard to strengthening relationships with our valued supporters, who became Patrons of the Society for the first time and, on the social front, we were set to have record numbers at the Legal Brain of Surrey Quiz in March 2020. A sell-out in fact, which hasn’t happened for many a year and it is such a shame that it could not take place.

However, the vast majority of my time as President has been spent in national lockdown or a variation thereof and that put an end to any big plans and scuppered any chances of being able to achieve all the goals set.

Being President of this great Society is a demanding job at the best of times, but with a backdrop of a global pandemic and the resulting economic impact and disruption to all of our lives, it has been very challenging to say the least. There hasn’t been a book to read to find out what to do when and looking back to prior years was not always helpful either, because we had entered a world that was very different to the one we knew before. It has been a difficult time for the profession as a whole.

We had to start again with our plans and we had to do it quickly. I’m proud that the SLS was able to do so by moving to a virtual world, providing training and development courses and other resources to help you navigate the lockdowns and the pandemic, the vast majority of which were complimentary to our members. When I think back to those first few weeks and months of the first national lockdown, chairing (or some may say, trying to chair) webinars from my spare room at home and praying that my son did not burst in for his five minutes of fame on Zoom or my internet connection did not drop out, I do so with pride because not many local law societies were able to do what Surrey did.

There were other positives to come out of the crisis too. The Supporting Surrey initiative, working more closely with Surrey Junior Lawyers Division, to support careers when many faced uncertain times was well received and so too were the online forums, which connected people practising in the same area of law to discuss issues being faced during the pandemic. I hope to see these forums grow in future because they are a very useful addition to the SLS programme and my thanks to all of you who took part in them.

Meeting with other local law societies more frequently online to share ideas and experiences and to feedback to Chancery Lane was also worthwhile. It was good to build on those networks up and down the country and to support one another.

At the end of the day, supporting one another has been how we have got through the last year or so. I have been grateful for your support and that of the SLS Committee and our CEO, Helen Opie. I must also thank Mumtaz Hussain, who stepped in for me when I was unable to chair webinars during the first lockdown and who is now the President of SLS. I am sure that she will do a sterling job and I wish her all the very best as she takes the Society forward. ■

Nick Ball

With my very best wishes,

Nick Ball

President