President’s Report

Firstly, I hope that everyone continues to be safe and well. By now, many of us will have had at least the first vaccine – some of us both – and as I write these remarks, non-essential shops, gyms, hairdressers and pubs are re-opening. I’m looking forward to a haircut and a pint (not necessarily in that order!) The last year of the pandemic has been incredibly challenging for all of our members in Norwich and Norfolk as well as the legal sector in general but from conversations I’ve had with members and further afield, law firms have certainly risen to the challenge and as the financial year for many has ended many firms are reporting a far more successful year that most had dared hope for in March 2020. That being said, for individual lawyers the last year has been and continues to be personally challenging and it goes without saying that if the Norfolk and Norwich Law Society can do anything to assist, please do get in touch.

Through the hard work of Claire Clarke and Carla Morphett we have continued to be able to provide a great programme of online professional development events and these have been very well attended and a lot of value gained from them. A particular success was our very own Richard Barr’s seminar discussing how lawyers should look after themselves. April and May 2021 have some really good further events and I’d encourage you all to sign up. July 2021 will be soon be upon us and time for membership renewal and I hope that as many lawyers and law firms do so. The professional development events are more than worth the membership subscription alone!

Finally, I’m delighted that progress out of lockdown means that we have been able to plan for the Annual Dinner 2021 and this will be taking place at the Assembly House on Friday 15th October 2021. This will be a fantastic opportunity for us to gather together as a community and tickets will be going on sale soon. To go alongside the Annual Dinner we will once again be hosting our Annual Awards and you can find the details of those awards in this edition of the magazine. There are new categories this year and these are all open to individuals, teams and firms as a whole so please do make sure to get your entries in.

Take care and I look forward to seeing all of you again soon.

Thomas Bailey

President, Norfolk & Norwich Law Society