I had not envisaged writing another editorial for this journal. All things being equal, the honour would have passed to my successor as President of SNELS, Chris Andrews. This, though, falls to me shortly before my term comes to its end, my term having been extended by a few months as the Committee felt it would be difficult to organise the AGM during lockdown. In any event, our upcoming AGM will take place by video link, as have a number of our previous SNELS Council meetings over previous months.
It is, of course, inevitable that the coronavirus pandemic takes centre stage here. It has completely changed our lives, both professional and personal, and we are still far from certain as to how we will all be delivering our services going forwards. While it is clear that some local firms are in regular attendance at their offices, many are working predominantly from home. Firms that had perhaps paid lip service to agile working in the past have been forced to ensure that this is a real possibility. And we have seen how the courts have been trying to adapt to new working methods: perhaps we can finally start to believe that electronic document bundles can be a permanent fixture.
When I took custody of the President’s medal in summer 2019, I said that one of my major interests would be to look to improve our links with the law faculties in the two universities in our region. On the latter, at least, we have made some progress, particularly with the University of Suffolk. The UOS Law School was hoping to organise a legal walk around Ipswich, although again that was stymied by Covid. I do hope that our education links will continue: SNELS should certainly be able to help as a conduit for law students to come to local firms. With our next President being based in Colchester, there will presumably be opportunity to work with the University of Essex as well.
In March I was invited to take part in the Suffolk Justices’ service at St. Edmundsbury Cathedral. That was one of the first times I saw the limitations that were starting to be imposed. While this was pre-lockdown, the service was understandably reduced.
On a final note, in deciding to extend my term until late September 2020, the Committee has also decided to move the Annual Dinner to springtime, rather than the autumn. Let us hope that come April 2021 we will be able to envisage such an enjoyable gathering. Do keep In Touch with your local Law Society, through this journal, and social media.
Next task – to deliver the President’s bling to Chris Andrews in time for the AGM. I wish him well for his term. I wonder if he will ever be able to chair a SNELS Council meeting that actually takes place in person.
Matthew Cameron
President
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