The President Writes...

Welcome to this edition of the Bulletin...

I am pleased to present to you the first edition of the Bulletin for 2023.

It has been a busy and encouraging start to the year. Despite the slow in the housing market I am pleased to report that many of those with whom I speak with have reported business has remained steady and despite the reports in the legal press I have heard of few redundancies or “cut backs”.

In fact, at the recent NLS Marsh Risk and Compliance Conference I had the opportunity to speak to a number of

Senior Partners and recruitment and retention seemed to be the ongoing concern, together with the bureaucracy of management tasks. In view of this we are looking at re-starting the Manging Partners Lunch so that we can share best practice and tips and we hope to engage more firms via this. If you are interested in joining, please do get in touch.

It was fantastic to see a huge number of Firms and Senior Partners support the Marsh Risk & Compliance Event and thank you to our Nam Qureshi and Victoria Prescott of our Patrons for the same. It was a very enlightening event and if you would like the slides which I feel are very useful please contact me or Carolyn.

I would also like to thank Mev Dzihic of Verify 365 for sponsoring the delightful lunch at the Marsh Compliance Event and we are pleased to announce that we are in the process of arranging a networking event together. Please look out for the same.

I am also pleased to announce we have an upcoming Conveyancing CPD Event entitled “Hot Topics in Residential Leasehold Conveyancing, including Building Safety” to be presented by Stephen Desmond in association with X-Press Legal Services to take place on 13th June 2023 and again look out for the same.

The NLS Council has continued to plan for the future and I would invite any expressions of interest for joining the Council.

I have continued my efforts to ensure the NLS is engaged in the local community and was honoured to attend the University of Northampton Law Fair together with our Society Manager and to speak to students and to sign up their interest in student affiliate membership. It was a great event and gave us the opportunity to speak to many students as well as engage with all the exhibiting Firms and I was able to speak to most Firms.

In keeping with education I was invited by The University of Buckingham together with my Assistant; Craig Dell

to hold a Careers Talk to students about our journeys into the career and to answer questions by the future of the profession. I have been asked by Sponne School in Towcester to undertake a similar task in April and we have once again been invited to attend the Law School graduations at both the University of Northampton and DeMontfort University.

As your President I am pleased to say DeMontfort University have also invited me to attend a dinner with the Vice Chancellor; Professor Katie Normington at The Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn in April.

Once again, I was asked to judge for the Birmingham Law Society Legal Awards at St Phillips Chambers and to attend their prestigious awards, together with the Manchester and Liverpool Law Society Presidents increasing our friendship and exchange of ideas.

We continue to support KidsAid; a local charity that assists Children who have suffered trauma with much needed care; further information can be found at www. kidsaid.org.uk and we are now working with Anne-Marie Dhillon of Law-Works, The University of Northampton and Rachel McGrath of Northamptonshire Community Foundation to restart a Pro Bono Legal Clinic in the county.

I am still keen to engage new members and local non-member firms and I would be pleased to hear from such with any suggestions or an invitation to meet.

I can be contacted at jm@shepherdandco.com

Best Regards

Jabeer Miah

President, Northamptonshire Law Society 20.03.2023