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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