President’s Address

I can’t believe it has been almost 6 weeks since our 20th Anniversary Awards Celebration in March, how time flies now that we are almost back to “normal”.

At BLS, we’ve been incredibly busy planning events until the end of my Presidential year and attending events where the focus has been on re-engaging and re-connecting post pandemic. On 14 May Laura Daly and I walked in the London Moonwalk raising vital funds for one of my chosen charities, supporting women and men with breast cancer - Walk the Walk. Having decorated our bras specially for the occasion, we arrived in London on a fine warm evening. We set off around 11.30pm and somewhere between mile 1 and 2 I fell flat on my face! How? I’ll never know, I got up immediately telling everyone I was fine, carried on in real pain to complete the 26.4 miles only to discover the next day I had broken my right elbow. Tony McDaid and Alice Kinder will complete the challenge walking the Moonwalk in Scotland on 11 June.

On 6 April we organised and hosted with 3PB the first in our series of networking social events for lawyers, with over 60 attendees. It was a great success bringing together newly qualified solicitors and barristers for the first time. The evening offered them an opportunity to mingle and meet each other and start to build their own network of contacts. It was followed swiftly by the second evening hosted by Cornwall Street Chambers where we were joined by two Ukrainian lawyers who had been forced to flee their homes and jobs and found themselves relocated to a host family in Sutton Coldfield. They had contacted BLS to see if there were any opportunities to meet like-minded lawyers. I was truly privileged to meet two extremely brave people and to give them an opportunity to meet others.

Also, in April, BLS hosted a social mobility roundtable with The Law Society; Achieving Change Together. It was well attended by senior partners and social mobility leads from many of the local firms. The discussion, led by Lubna Shuja (Vice President of TLS) was both interesting and informative, it was clear that as a profession we have come a long way since I qualified 30 years ago but we still have a long way to go.

Our first in person Managing Partner’s roundtable took place where the discussion inevitably turned to how firms could maintain office and firm culture in the new hybrid world. Whilst no one came up with the answer, ideas were shared, and it is clearly something that firms will continue to focus on over the coming months. Thank you to Steve Allen and Mills and Reeve for hosting and providing such a spectacular lunch. As you would expect, I have continued to enjoy many lunches with our sponsors, including St Philips Chambers, Tula Medical Experts and 3PB. I attended the Nottingham Law Society Dinner and Awards evening and also the Leeds Law Society Dinner where we were entertained by a fabulous band made up of sitting Judges!

The Legal Awards winners’ dinner at Fazenda was an opportunity for me to meet some of the impressive winners of our 2022 awards in a more relaxed setting. Thanks to Tomas Maunier for being such a wonderful and generous host for the evening. Our lunch club with Jude Jennison (Leadership with a Difference) was amazing, despite the fact that Jude and I both had broken elbows and were wearing matching slings, she shared some really interesting and inspiring tips around leadership.

The REACH Committee hosted a screening of the powerful and thought provoking film “No Mercy” at the Mac which was well attended and has encouraged them to look to host a similar event in the Autumn, details of which will follow. Our committees continue to do some sterling work, particularly in relation to preparing responses to consultation documents. Recent submissions have been from the Property Committee, Employment Committee and the Consultation Committee, who produced a superb response to the recent SRA Consultation on rule changes for health and wellbeing at work.

Whilst on the subject of Committees, we are always on the lookout for new members, in particular, the ED&I Committee and InHouse Committee are looking for new Chairs and the ProBono Committee for new members to take matters forward. If you are interested in joining a Committee or just finding out more information please click here. It would be great to see some “Committee Teams” at our next hotly contested Quiz in October. In January we set up a working party to review the Governance of the Society to ensure that it was fit for purpose in 2022. They have made a number of recommendations which will now be considered by an Implementation Committee, any changes will be circulated and hopefully implemented at the AGM in September. I am extremely grateful for the hard work of the working party and look forward to receiving the findings of the Implementation Committee in due course. We often fear change but if it is something that makes BLS stronger we should embrace it.

We have some amazing events planned over the next few months. Firstly, on 9 June we have the Alternative Dinner, aimed at anyone below partner level who may not have had the opportunity to attend a formal dinner for some time or even at all. There are still a few tickets available if you are interested in attending either as a team, with colleagues or clients or even on your own. On 28 June we have the Social Mobility Conference hosted jointly with Squire Patton Boggs which follows the same format as the Manchester event hosted in March. It is a must attend for everyone.

The Wellbeing Conference will now go ahead on 5 July. The Conference, which is virtual, features a Roundtable discussion looking at the 5 pillars of Wellbeing. The discussion will be led by Nisha March and include some well-known individuals from a number of firms as well as The High Sherriff of the West Midlands David Moorcroft OBE. There will be a Masterclass hosted by Donna Smith, a former lawyer looking at Self-sabotage and taster sessions looking at Mindfulness and Meditation, the importance of movement and nutrition. Given the recent consultation by the SRA focusing on mental health, it is an event not to be missed, there is something for everyone, employers and employees alike.

It will not have escaped your notice that on 28 July 2022 Birmingham will host the Commonwealth Games attended by over 70 nations. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity for most of us to be part of this historic event in our home city. BLS are currently putting arrangements in place to offer free legal advice to athletes during the games and we will be shortly looking for volunteers to make this work. The International Committee has worked tirelessly for a number of years to bring a delegation of Commonwealth Lawyers to Birmingham for a Conference entitled “Race to the Commonwealth and Beyond”. It is a real honour that they have chosen to come to Birmingham, last year they were in the Bahamas. BLS is jointly hosting the event with the Commonwealth Lawyers Association at the University of Birmingham on 21/22 July, tickets are on sale now for the Conference and a spectacular dinner on 21 July, it is an event not to be missed.

And finally, it wouldn’t be summer without the annual BLS sporting events including netball, football, golf and back by popular demand “It’s a Knockout”. I really do look forward to seeing you there.

If you have any comments or suggestions of things that you would like to see from BLS please do get in touch.

Stephanie Perraton, President.

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