- Manchester Legal Awards Winners Announced! - Employment Law Forum Meeting - Sponsor MLS President and Vice President to do the We Love MCR Three Peaks Challenge! - The SQE and Legal Apprenticeships: what are they and how can firms navigate the new legal education and training landscape? - Personal Branding Webinars with Phil Ossai - Resilience – It’s all about squashing those ANTs - Dates for the diary - June Messenger - Workplace Culture - Challenging Unfair Behaviour
Huge congratulations to all the winners at last night’s Manchester Legal Awards!
We are humbled by the fantastic achievements of the Manchester legal sector and we are proud to be able to support you.
A massive thank you to all our sponsors and partners for this year’s Manchester Legal Awards. We could not make it the event it is without you! We hope that all who attended had a wonderful evening!
Please see the list of winners below:
CSR Champions of the Year
WINNER: Brabners LLP SPONSOR: The College of Legal Practice
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Champions of the Year
WINNER: University of Law SPONSOR: Appleyard Lees
Health & Wellbeing Champions of the Year
WINNER: Myerson Solicitors SPONSOR: MFL Insurance Group Ltd
WINNER: Giles Maynard-Connor KC SPONSOR: Leigh Day
Barristers Chambers of the Year
WINNER: St John’s Buildings SPONSOR: Weightmans
Law Firm of the Year – small (1-5 partners)
WINNER: IMD Solicitors LLP SPONSOR: Lawshare
Law Firm of the Year – medium (5-20 partners)
WINNER: Hall Brown Family Law SPONSOR: Groundsure
Law Firm of the Year – large (20+ partners)
WINNER: Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP SPONSOR: Fletchers Group
Lifetime Achievement Award
WINNER: Michael Clavell-Bate SPONSOR: Interlink Talent Solutions
We look forward to doing it all again in 2024!
Employment Law Forum Meeting
The next Employment Law Forum meeting will take place on Tuesday 13 June from 4pm at Squires Patton Boggs’ Manchester office. All MLS Member employment lawyers welcome! It will start with a brilliant education session with Lisa Wright of Menopause the Wright Way discussing why Menopause isn’t just a midlife issue for women, followed by an overview of employee benefits from Mattioli Woods, a leading provider of employee benefits and wealth management. The session will then be followed by a social with drinks sponsored by Mattioli Woods.
Whilst the event is free, please confirm your attendance by 5pm TODAY, Friday 9th June for catering and security purposes.
This will be a great opportunity for Employment lawyers to further their knowledge about menopause in the workplace and find out what employers are doing to raise awareness and support their staff affected by menopause.
Mattioli Woods will also provide an interesting update about their employee benefits offering, a vital ingredient for companies in the fight to recruit and retain talent.
Following this, we will move to a local bar which will provide a great opportunity to network and enjoy drinks, courtesy of Mattioli Woods.
On Friday 16th June 2023, MLS President Nick Johnson and Vice President David Anderson will be completing the 3 Peaks of The Peaks Challenge with We Love MCR.
They will re-trace the steps of The Kinder Scout Trespassers, working-class Mancunians who put their liberty on the line to establish the right to roam.
Find out why Nick chose us to be his charity of the year and donate to their fundraising here.
Are you involved in therecruitment, training or supervision of trainees or newly qualified lawyers? Are you considering Legal Apprenticeships or any routes to law other than the LPC?
If yes to these questions please join us on 29th June where BPP University and firms from the North West will discuss their approach to the SQE.
We will discuss how they are managing the mix of LPC and SQE candidates, are they funding SQE1 and / or SQE 2, if they have embarked on recruiting Legal Apprentices.
The speakers and panel will address the challenges and opportunities presented by the new regime and attendees will be able to reflect upon what is right for their firm.
Date: 29 June 2023 Time: 14:00-16:45 Location: Weightmans, No 1 Spinningfields, Hardman Square, Manchester, M3 3EB Cost to attend: MLS Members £20.00 + VAT (£24.00) Non-members £40.00 + VAT (£48.00)
Programme
14:00 Registration 14:30 What is the SQE and how does it impact on legal education and training? Key questions for firms to ask themselves. 15:00 How could Legal Apprenticeships work for you? 15:15 Q&A session on the SQE and Legal Apprenticeships 15:30 Break 15:45 Case studies and panel: What are firms in the North West doing and how is it going? 16:45 Networking drinks
We are delighted to announce a series of personal branding webinars with Phil Ossai.
In 2022, Phil turned his passion for personal branding into a mission, founding OSSAI into a thriving six-figure personal branding agency. OSSAI, under Phil’s leadership, has enabled everything from small law firms to FTSE 100 companies to harness LinkedIn for business results that all professionals actually want: a tangible return on investment not on vanity metrics.
In partnership with Manchester Law Society Phil will be sharing how to build and shape your personal brand to improve your career prospects and visibility with your colleagues and clients.
All the webinars are free, held from 13:00 to 14:00 and take place on Teams. If you would like more information on the sessions or book your place please click on the links below:
Date: 16 June 2023 Time: 13:00–13:45 Location:Online via Teams Cost to attend:Free but you must book your place
How you think about yourself and how you use your mind immediately affects your relationship with yourself and others. It can also have a dramatic effect on your own resilience levels.
To help you stay positive, Mike Ode from Potential Unearthed, will introduce you to several techniques that will help you to slam the brakes on when you have negative thoughts.
Understand how your conscious and subconscious brain work together (or not!)
Learn how to ‘Squash the ANTs’
Circles of Influence and Concern – Learn how to re-frame your thoughts
Learn how the ‘But technique’ can help you create positive pathways in your brain
Pathway thinking – How to change your mind set in three simple steps
Read more about the importance of developing resiliance in Mike's column in the Messenger here.
On 4 May 2023, the SRA issued guidance following changes to the SRA Standards and Regulations relating to the workplace environment which came into effect on 4 April 2023.
The new standards introduced to the Code of Conduct for Solicitors states (at 1.5) “You treat colleagues fairly and with respect. You do not bully or harass them or discriminate unfairly against them. If you are a manager you challenge behaviour that does not meet this standard.” A similar provision is contained in the Code of Conduct for Firms (1.6) “You treat those who work for and with you fairly and with respect, and do not bully or harass them or discriminate unfairly against them. You require your employees to meet this standard.”
One’s first reaction might be that employment legislation already deals with this so why is the SRA getting involved at all? However, the SRA’s guidance makes it very clear that “in a regulatory context, treating colleagues fairly and with respect is not the same as complying with employment law”. The SRA’s focus will be on those situations where serious unfair behaviour poses a risk for consumers or the wider public interest, so for example, situations where the working environment creates risks of mistakes and poor outcomes for clients, or to serious ethical concerns such as when staff are placed under pressure to cover up problems.
The obligation on managers to challenge unfair behaviour is likely to lead to an increase in internal reports to the COLP and in all likelihood some difficult decisions will need to be made as to whether a further report to the SRA is needed. Recording such internal reports, the outcomes of investigations and decisions made will be essential.
Compli can help with reviewing your policies, procedures, the carrying out of independent investigations and the reporting obligations. Whether through its helpline, retainer services or “pay as you use” services, you will benefit from privileged legal advice and compliance support.
To discuss how Compli can help, contact Michelle Garlick or Andrea Cohen at compli@weightmans.com or call us on 0161 233 7426.
