Surrey Junior Lawyers Division

REPORT

Surrey Junior Lawyers Division

Some of the committee members of Surrey JLD, JLD Berks, Bucks & Oxon, Herts JLD and Northants Bucks JLD from the recent Law Society event.

Surrey JLD has been busy these past few months. Regarding events, we had a self-assurance and confidence webinar with leadership coach and former employment law partner Simona Hamblet on 23 March, which was organised by Diversity & Inclusion and Events Representative Amber Matheson, along with a Cocoa with The Committee hosted by University & Colleges Representative Bethany Walker on different routes into law on 31 March. On 12 April we were pleased to have a Cocoa with The Committee on art law with Racheal Muldoon and Tamara Manton, giving insight into their work as a solicitor and barrister respectively.

On 5 May was the second in the Supporting Surrey series of mental health and well-being webinars this year with Surrey Law Society. Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) saw a series of webinars organised by Wellness Representative Sonay Erten with the first being a panel event of SJLD committee members including Wellness Representative William Smith-Brix, Amber Matheson, Charity Representative Katrina Burrows and Chair Martin Whitehorn.

Unfortunately, Donna Smith could not make it to our webinar on 12 May, but Sonay managed to get Suzie Stanley at short notice to speak to members. After MHAW we had another webinar with Leah Steele on 19 May. The recordings of these MHAW webinars are available in the Webinars section of our website https://surreyjld.org.uk/.

We were delighted to have a sold-out reception at The Law Society for private client and family junior lawyers on 25 May with speakers Melinda Giles from The Law Society’s Private Client Section, Jade Quirke from London YRes and Stephen Burgess from HMCTS. The event was in partnership with JLD Berks, Bucks and Oxon, Hertfordshire JLD and Northants Bucks JLD, and kindly sponsored by Chadwick Nott Legal Recruitment.

Upcoming elections

We were excited to gain new ULaw Representative Khola Shah recently, an aspiring barrister whose proactive nature makes her well-suited to the committee. With only a few months until our next elections, we address common misconceptions about joining our committee to assist those interested in helping us support aspiring and junior lawyers.

They won’t want someone with no experience of being on such a committee.

As a committee made up of junior and aspiring lawyers, we readily appreciate that everyone has to start somewhere, so previous experience on a similar committee, for example at university, is by no means required. Asking for previous experience on a committee of junior lawyers is rather like asking for previous law firm experience for an entry-level job: contradictory.

Even so, there are plenty of others applying; they won’t want me.

Perhaps the most important thing we look for in prospective committee members is heartfelt appreciation of our events and a consequent desire to contribute to Surrey JLD’s success. You’d be surprised how many try to join our committee without having attended a single event. In short, if you’re passionate about helping, we’d love to have you.

I won’t have the time.

At their peak, no role apart from perhaps Chair of our committee takes up any more than 1 or 2 hours a week. You can always ask another committee member for help.

There isn’t a role suitable for me.

Our committee has expanded to 19 in November last year precisely because new committee members had not restricted themselves to applying for existing roles. As a result, we have Wellness, In-House, Career Changer, CILEx, SQE and Universities & Colleges Representatives on the committee, so if you can think of a role that would be a great fit, for example a SQE or Bar Representative, then do apply.

For more information about what we look for in committee members, simply email us at surreyjuniorlawyersdivision@ gmail.com.