President’s Report

Dear Members,

Little could I have imagined that by the time I was writing my next President’s Report for the magazine, we would be facing a world-wide pandemic, and a justice system under such acute strain that it is unlikely  to recover for years to come, unless record levels of funding are made available from the government. Since the East Midlands has not even had the benefit of a Nightingale Court being funded to ease some of the backlog in the region, the recovery here is likely to take even longer.

Law firms were forced to close their doors and set up remote working in no more than a week. Although we as law firms will have had disaster planning in place for contemplated emergencies like cyber-attacks or flooding, none of us could have been ready for what hit us with the pandemic, or could have conceived of the possibility of surviving intact after not one, but two, lockdown situations. It is a credit to the Leicestershire legal community that we have been so resilient and have continued to provide high quality services to our clients throughout this awful time. At my last Main Committee meeting, we had the Deputy Vice President of the national Law Society Stephanie Boyce give an address at which she spoke of how impressed she was with the Leicester and Leicestershire legal communities who were dealing so effectively with the second lockdown.

The Leicestershire Law Society have been focussing on providing as much training and support as we can during this period. We have offered training to our members aimed at helping them deal with the impact of the pandemic such as an overview of the different financial schemes and grants available, marketing strategies for law firms post-Covid by our Patrons D G Legal and by Rachel Tombs, compliance education particularly with reference to Covid-related health and safety, SQM remote audits, and other general courses such as Modern Slavery by Olwen Davies and Court of Appeal work, and Behavioural Biases by one of our Patrons Finance Lab. Charnwood Accountants who are also our Patrons offered courses on succession planning and SRA Accounts Rules.  We have run courses in Conveyancing with Ian Quayle and the national Law Society conducted a consultation with some of our members on what the national Law Society are doing to support law firms during this time and what is available from them by way of resources. All in all, we have doubled the training on offer to our members the majority of which has been completely free.

I count myself as very fortunate that I was able to run all of my planned events up to and including the Triumphs of Leicester prior to the lockdown, as the events brought in a considerable profit for the Leicestershire Law Society which has transpired to be a blessing indeed given what has now occurred, and the fact that the LLS are unable to generate an income during this period. I promised faithfully at the start of the Presidency that I would be a careful steward for the LLS and would look to shore up our financial stability. I have done so, which means that the LLS has a healthy bank balance and are still in a strong position financially notwithstanding the effect of the pandemic.  It is a strategy that now seems rather prescient given what was to come – otherwise we may not have had a Law society at all.

As you will all know, the “Classical Extravaganza” Annual Dinner and Legal Award night that Lucy and I had worked so hard to organise was a virtual sell out with just under 400 tickets being sold. That was pulled with great sadness a week before it was due to take place on the 20 March 2020. It was of course absolutely the right thing to do. The event was rebooked for the end of September in the expectation that the country would by then have risen out of the pandemic and that mass gatherings would be possible, but sadly that has not transpired to be the case. The Legal Awards have therefore been moved to May 2021 where the “Classical Extravaganza” will still take place, but where I will be delighted to share the event with the President that will be taking up the seat following the AGM on the 30 September 2020. The candidates shortlisted in 2020 will remain in place for the 2021 event, and a new competition will be run in 2022. I am so pleased that our entertainment in the form of the scintillating electric string quartet “The Sirens” and acclaimed mezzo-soprano Rozanna Madylas and baritone Lancelot Nomura will still be performing on the night along with the fabulous “Likuid Blu” who will take us all onto the dancefloor after the awards are given out. I am also thrilled that BBC Radio Presenter Jo Hayward will still be our glamorous compere for the evening as planned.  I have comforted myself that the event, although postponed, will be twice the celebration because of what we will all have been through. I certainly hope that will transpire to be the case.

Since my last report, and prior to the pandemic, I held two events which will stay with me as the most wonderful memories. The first was the Presidential ZipWire Challenge where I was joined by lawyers and local businesspeople to undertake the fastest zipwire in Europe. It was truly a thrilling and breath-taking experience as we achieved speeds of nearly 100 mph as we hurtled down the zipwire. The best part of the event was the generosity shown by those who pledged to support us as we took up the challenge. We raised over £10,000 for the Alex’s Wish Charity which is phenomenal. For those of you who may be interested in more adrenaline activities, I am undertaking a loop de loop in 2021 in a small bi-plane in 2021 and am looking for others to join me for more fundraising! Do contact me if you are interested!

I was immensely proud that the “Triumphs of Leicester” gala dinner was also a sell-out. I had conceived of the theme for this dinner before I became President and it will remain very close to my heart. It was an opportunity to truly celebrate Leicester and Leicestershire. We heard from some of the most significant individuals who have hailed from Leicester including (for Law) Sir John Goldring, and again, you can read more about this event later in the magazine. I was delighted to work with the University of Leicester in producing a film for the night celebrating extraordinary people who have come out of Leicester, which was shown on the night to general acclaim and has been released by the LLS and the University of Leicester on their social media channels.

As you may well be aware, my Presidential seat should have ended in May 2020 but I was asked to stay on as President until the end of September 2020 to see LLS through the worst of the pandemic. I was happy to do so on the basis that there could not be a worse time for a new President to take up the reins. This will therefore be my final President’s Report and I wish to conclude with my enormous thanks to my Main Committee members and my fellow Executive Committee members for their support and continuing commitment to the Society. Most of all, I wish to thank Lucy Miller, the LLS Manager for her conscientiousness and excellence in discharging her duties. Sadly, Lucy will be moving on shortly to pastures new. I know that all who read this report will want to pass on their best wishes to Lucy who has been outstanding. It would be fair to say that Lucy and I have enjoyed working together immensely, no doubt bonded by the mutual stress of running the events that we have, as well as the excitement and challenge of those times, and of course, our desire to do our very best for the members of LLS. Lucy will be sorely missed but I am sure you will all be delighted to welcome Kauser Patel back as the LLS Manager who you will recall left following the birth of her second baby. Therefore, I am assured in my mind that Lucy and I will be leaving the LLS in very good hands with Kauser and of course the new President who will be taking over from 30 September 2020!

Glynis Wright

President of the Leicestershire Law Society

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