From the President

I am delighted to have been elected as your President for 2022. It is a great honour and a privilege to represent such a well-respected organisation. I will do my best to represent the interests of you, our members.

For those of you that I have not had the pleasure of meeting, my name is Steve Hamilton, and I qualified as a solicitor in 2007. I studied Law and Criminology at University with the original intention of pursuing a career in the police. However, during my studies I found that I had a more natural aptitude for the technical side of law and from there I went on to complete my Legal Practice Course (LPC). My training contract was with a regional firm in the North Hertfordshire and Central Bedfordshire areas.

I subsequently joined Taylor Walton upon my qualification as a solicitor in 2007; I was a little fresher faced and had a little more hair, but being newly qualified, I also had some learning to do. Taylor Walton is highly experienced at nurturing and encouraging its trainees and newly qualified solicitors and this shows in its staff retention. Indeed, a significant number of our present partners started their careers at Taylor Walton as trainees.

I’ve also done much learning outside of the legal world: I’ve got two sons who keep me terrifically busy playing sports, helping with homework and learning about Pokemon and rollercoasters. We are an outdoorsy family and love walking, cycling and geocaching. These activities really help to refresh the mind ready for another intense week at the office. Spending time with my family is one of the ways I like to recharge at the weekend. Attending Law Society meetings have been another useful tool for me to vary my working week away from my office family.

I am taking over the role of President at a very strange and surreal time. It has been a difficult year for all with the Covid-19 pandemic continuing to cause uncertainty and many of us have lost loved ones, family and friends and no doubt most of us have far higher hopes for 2022 than we had for 2021. Whilst one vaccine had received regulatory approval by the end of 2020 there was still a general uncertainty about what 2021 would have in store for us. As it turned out, 2021 was a better year than 2020 and hopefully 2022 will be a further improvement, despite the emergence of the Omicron variant. As I take up this position as President, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Neil Johnson for his work over the preceding two year period. I think that Neil will go down as the first HLS president to serve a two year term and Neil has certainly had many obstacles to deal with over his term, but he has coped admirably and I hope that I can do likewise.

I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Diana Kirsch on becoming Vice President and to cement what is already a great working relationship between the society and the University of Hertfordshire. It will be pleasure to work with Diana to achieve further success for the HLS.

At the tail end of my vice-presidency I attended a drinks reception at the newly named Grace Ononiwu Law Court Building at the University of Hertfordshire in honour of Dr Grace Ononiwu CBE, alumna and the first AfroCaribbean person to serve as Chief Crown Prosecutor in the UK and currently Director of Legal Services for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). I also enjoyed attending the joint Hertfordshire Junior Lawyers Division and Hertfordshire Law Society Festive Food and Fizz night at the Blacksmiths Arms in Saint Albans, brilliantly organised by Aisling Hayward and so special thanks to her.

In terms of my plans for the next 12 months then I do hope to increase the membership and promote the work of the Society to other local organisations and to ensure the Society takes a role in community and charitable activities locally. At the time of writing I am currently due to attend the Southern Area Association of Law Societies (SAALS) meeting in Hampshire on 27th January and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) annual dinner in March and I will continue to attend as many events that I can and do my best to promote the good work that the Society does.

As we come out of the pandemic we will look to increase our offering of training and social events and hopefully by the time I write this column again we will be back to ‘normal’.

I look forward to hearing from you our members on what you would like your council to deliver, and how we can support you and I would welcome your ideas and suggestions

Steven Hamilton

President of the Hertfordshire Law Society

Steven.hamilton@taylorwalton.co.uk