I’d like to start off this months blog by wishing you all a 'Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year'.
November ended with the Newly Qualified Solicitors and New Tenant Barristers reception at MemSaab. We also announced that night the winner of the Kevin De Silva Legal Article competition. Both myself and HHJ Owen, welcomed the three finalists, Ella Bremner, Chris Inglis and Aakriti Garodia, and HHJ Owen announced the winner as Ella Bremner. You can read Ella's article in this bulletin edition!
Stephen Luke, pictured with HHJ Owen, pictured winner, Ella Bremner, and finalists Aakriti Garodia and Chris Inglis
Since November's edition, the month of December has been filled with celebration. I had the pleasure of attending the Past Presidents lunch for the very first time. The lunch was hosted by Past President Janine McKinney at Trent Bridge cricket ground and attended by 18 previous presidents.
It was a great experience to be in a room with so many influential and inspirational people who have been at the forefront and ran the legal scene in Nottinghamshire for over 90 years. Next year it will be my lunch to host and I’m thoroughly looking forward to it!
On 4th December I chaired the final of the Presidents cup with support from fellow Judges. This was held at KCH Garden Square chambers on the Oxford Street and the two finalists were Lane Castro of Gateley Legal and Will Jones of Freeths LLP.
Both gave a good performance, shining through with confidence and good advocacy/negotiation skills.
Following deliberation, the Presidents cup was awarded to Will Jones, congratulations Will. We had a lot of entries this year and I’d encourage everyone get involved to apply next year, who knows you could be the next winner!
The same week myself and the judging panel met at the Law Society offices to carefully go through over 40 nominations for next years Annual Awards dinner. It was a tough task with lots of competition but after an evening of discussion, food and drinks we were delighted with the decisions made. The shortlist will be announced soon so keep an eye out!
Then finally last week, 13th December we hosted the Law Society Christmas drinks. For the first time we hired out the entire venue at Copper, with security on the door, Christmas lights twinkling, music playing by the fabulous Matt Turner and wonderful Christmas canapés. The night was a great success, everyone was dancing, the atmosphere was electric and it was a nice way to see out the year of 2023.
Before the year end, the Society has one more council meeting this week and then it is time for me to put my feet up for Christmas.
I hope everyone has a wonderful break and I look forward to seeing you all in the new year.
Best wishes,
Stephen Luke
President 2023-2024