PRESIDENT’S LETTER off the donations. Please do continue to donate what you can spare, further details can be found on the BLS website, you, really can help to make a difference. And don’t forget we are still looking for volunteers to cook for the clients on 11th & 18th August, please do get in touch if you are able to help out, I can promise you, it is an experience you will never forget. I recently hosted a Committees Chairs meeting to thank them for the sterling work they do on behalf of the Society. I am delighted to report that we have at last appointed a new Chair and Vice of the ED&I Committee, Catherine Edwards (Keele University) and Suki Chhokar (Axiom DWFM) and Cleo Stewart (Midland Heart) and Heidi Salter (Housing 21) for the InHouse Committee. If you are interested in joining a Committee or just finding out more information click here.
Dare I say, I think we are pretty much back to normal? There is a real air of anticipation around the city. I for one cannot wait for the start of the Commonwealth Games here in Birmingham. Birmingham is looking amazing, ready to welcome the competitors, their friends and family and many other visitors from around the Commonwealth to our great City. I am so proud to be a Brummie, it really does feel like it’s time to celebrate everything we have achieved since the dark days of the pandemic. At BLS we have been embracing all of the opportunities the Games has brought to us including the very successful Conference and Dinner at University of Birmingham last week hosted jointly with the Commonwealth Lawyers Association. The Conference focused on equality and diversity in sport. Although I was unable to attend the conference and dinner I was lucky enough to attend the Civic Reception, at the Council House hosted by the Lord Mayor. Attendees included, Tony McDaid, Eileen Schofiled, Brian Spears, President of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, the Hon Marlene Malahoo Forte QC, MP from Jamaica, Paul McConnell, University of Birmingham, John McKendrick QC, Muddasir Hossain from Bangladesh, and Hasan Khan from Pakistan to name a few. 4
It is usual for the host city to put together team of volunteers to provide free legal advice to the athletes and their entourage and as always BLS have risen to the challenge, we have over 40 volunteers ready to provide advice during the games and a team of volunteers from BTSS who will be manning the phones. Good luck to everyone who is participating, I know you will do BLS and Birmingham proud. In other news, the Alternative Dinner took place in June, we had over 140 attendees, who enjoyed a formal dinner, heard from Jayne Willetts winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Dan Bridgewater and Lucy Coulson from No5 Chambers and finished the night with lots of networking on the dancefloor! We took part in the Birmingham Legal Walk, walking 10 miles raising vital funds to support access to justice and Tony and Alice completed the Moonwalk Scotland in support of my charity, Walk the Walk. If you have not yet sponsored the team who completed 188 miles between them it’s not too late, you can donate here. Whilst on the subject of my charities, we have recently launched a campaign to help SIFA obtain essential supplies to allow them to continue their work. Members have been donating clothes, toiletries, tins of beans and other nonperishable foodstuffs via BLS and I have made regular trips to Digbeth to drop
On a separate note, thank you to our volunteers who have been out delivering books to primary schools in Birmingham as part of the Gender Sub-Committee’s project to put a copy of “Equal to Everything, Judge Brenda and the Supreme Court”. I personally delivered 21 books to schools in Sutton Coldfield and without exception, the schools were extremely grateful. The Social Mobility Conference, hosted by Squire Patton Boggs was a huge success, it produced some very lively discussions and is something we will continue to promote in the future. I am delighted that the Wellbeing Conference finally went ahead on 5 July. The Conference which was designed to look at Wellbeing initiatives from both an employer and employee perspective featured a Roundtable discussion on Wellbeing, led by Nisha March (Harrison Clark Rickerby) with David Moorcroft, The High Sherriff of the West Midlands, Wendy Ramshaw (Squire Patton Boggs), Chris Harvey (DWF), Donna Smith (Odonnata), Bill Barton (Barton Legal) and Charlotte Thornton-Smith (Harrison Clark Rickerby). It was followed by a Masterclass hosted by Donna Smith, a former lawyer looking at self-sabotage which definitely gave us plenty to think about and embrace and taster sessions looking at Mindfulness and Meditation, the importance of movement and nutrition from the team at “Wellbeing in Your Office”. Also in July we hosted our first in person wine tasting at Loki which was a great www.birminghamlawsociety.co.uk
