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Messenger November 2017

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5<br />

President’s Column<br />

5<br />

It has been another busy<br />

month at MLS.<br />

At the end of September I<br />

had the pleasure of being<br />

one of the lead walkers at<br />

the Manchester Legal Walk<br />

which is organised by the<br />

Northwest Legal Support<br />

Trust. The Trust's aim is to<br />

improve access to justice<br />

for the most vulnerable in<br />

society. They do this by raising<br />

funds at events such as<br />

the Walk and distributing<br />

the funds to organisations<br />

that provide pro bono support<br />

for those who need<br />

legal help but cannot afford<br />

it. The Walk was open<br />

to anyone and I am delighted<br />

to say that it was<br />

very well attended. I have<br />

not seen the official numbers<br />

but it looked to me<br />

that there must have been<br />

nearly 300 people at the<br />

event.<br />

From the President<br />

I was fortunate to walk<br />

most of the 10K route<br />

around the city with<br />

Martha Spurrier, who is the<br />

current director of Liberty –<br />

the human rights organisation.<br />

Martha was incredibly<br />

good company and, as you<br />

can imagine, has a very interesting<br />

story to tell.<br />

Martha practised as a<br />

human rights barrister before<br />

taking her current role<br />

at Liberty. I have invited<br />

Martha to come to talk to<br />

our members next year and<br />

I am very pleased to say<br />

that she agreed to do so.<br />

As for the Walk, I can confirm<br />

that Martha and I<br />

walked at least 10K – and<br />

perhaps a little further as I<br />

may have taken a wrong<br />

turn at one stage! I have to<br />

say that this contrasted<br />

with the vast majority of<br />

walkers who were all congregated<br />

at the bar at Manchester<br />

Hall when we<br />

finished the walk. This surprised<br />

us as we led the Walk<br />

from the start and very few<br />

people passed us on our<br />

way! Dare I say not everyone<br />

walked a full 10k?!<br />

Martha rounded off the<br />

evening with an extempore<br />

speech which left no one in<br />

the room with any doubts<br />

as to the value of pro bono<br />

work and supporting access<br />

to justice. One particular<br />

line which struck me<br />

was Martha's comment<br />

that (and I paraphrase) - the<br />

denial of access to justice is<br />

the arsenic in the water of<br />

our democracy. An inspiring<br />

speech and I am looking<br />

forward to hearing<br />

more from Martha when<br />

she visits us next year.<br />

Another event I attended<br />

on behalf of MLS was the<br />

opening of the legal year at<br />

Westminster Abbey which<br />

was also attended by heads<br />

of law societies and bar<br />

counsels from throughout<br />

the world – Canada, Singapore,<br />

and Turkey – and<br />

what appeared to be every<br />

senior judge in the country<br />

and a fair proportion of the<br />

bar. It was a wonderful<br />

event to be involved in - a<br />

part of living history drawing<br />

on hundreds of years of<br />

tradition. The main reason I<br />

mention the event is that<br />

amongst the great and the<br />

good, there were only<br />

seven regional law societies<br />

represented at the<br />

event from England and<br />

Wales: the Joint V (Manchester,<br />

Liverpool, Leeds,<br />

Birmingham and Bristol),<br />

Cardiff and London. This<br />

again underlines the importance<br />

of MLS in the eyes<br />

of the National Law Society<br />

(which helped to organise<br />

the event) and once again<br />

gave us direct access to the<br />

President and Chief Executive<br />

of the Law Society.<br />

Turning to more mundane<br />

(but probably more important)<br />

matters, many of you<br />

will have spotted that the<br />

MOJ has decided to postpone<br />

the pilot trial for extending<br />

Court opening<br />

hours which would have<br />

seen additional pressures<br />

on many practitioners.<br />

The pilot was proposed in<br />

Manchester, but thanks to<br />

Jeff Lewis and other members<br />

of the Civil Justice<br />

Committee, who worked<br />

hard to provide evidence as<br />

to the problems which the<br />

proposed system would<br />

pose, the Government has<br />

now said that it will postpone<br />

the pilot until a "robust,<br />

efficient evaluation<br />

system" is in place.<br />

We are told that this is<br />

likely to be in February. It<br />

will be interesting to see<br />

what system they come up<br />

with.<br />

From January 2018, the<br />

<strong>Messenger</strong> will no longer<br />

be printed and delivered in<br />

hard copy. It will be circulated<br />

in electronic format<br />

only, apart from a special<br />

edition which will follow<br />

the Manchester Legal<br />

Awards in March, as we appreciate<br />

that the winners of<br />

awards like to have a hard<br />

copy memento of the<br />

night.<br />

The move to electronic format<br />

is for a variety of reasons,<br />

including: readers'<br />

Jon Hainey<br />

preferences, the environment,<br />

advertisers' views<br />

and costs. I have seen examples<br />

of the electronic<br />

version and it looks great<br />

and is very user friendly, so<br />

hopefully you will all soon<br />

get used to receiving the<br />

publication in this format.<br />

Finally, a quick update on<br />

Ladybridge. Despite my<br />

continued on page 7<br />

<br />

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