Black Jack Ball proves a winner!

The Society spiced up its annual summer social event by laying on a Las Vegas themed party. Council Member and Joint Social Secretary Charlotte Clode takes up the story:- 

“The Jubilee weekend kicked off with a Las Vegas themed cocktail party for 90 local professionals who attended Wolverhampton Law Society’s Black Jack Ball on Friday 1 June.

Cocktails, which included concoctions such as the ‘Vegas Bomb’ and ‘Loaded Dice’ courtesy of sponsors No 5 Chambers, flowed throughout the night as groups from local law firms such as Rees Page and Thornes Solicitors gathered alongside other local professionals from the likes of Tildesley & Tonks to fritter away their fortunes on Wolverhampton’s Wheel of Fortune (aka – roulette), Black Country Black Jack Table and at President Birkett’s Poker Palace. In fact the Society’s own Andrew Wynne of FBC Manby Bowdler ranked within the top three highest casino winnings at the end of the evening.

The venue, Perton Park Golf Club, did the Society proud with the quality of food and Vegas themed decoration whilst local band Firefly entertained party-goers long into the night; their set only broken up by main event sponsors Wesleyan for Lawyers’ free prize draw which saw a Kindle and 6 bottle wine hamper up for grabs - lucky winners Mark Fletcher of Crombies Chartered Accountants and Catrin Morgan of NJP Solicitors walked away with those fantastic prizes.

All appeared to have a good time - the contingent from Higgs & Sons especially, who were heard ‘singing’ all the way to their taxis when the event closed at 1am – and no doubt the event will now become an annual feature on Wolverhampton Law Society’s social calendar.

If you can’t wait until Summer 2013 for our next social, however, then be sure to look out for the Society’s Annual Dinner which saw numbers in excess of 190 attend the Molineux in 2011. This year’s Dinner will be held on 9 November and ‘save the date’ invites will come out to everyone shortly.”

Please click image to enlarge

Please click image to enlarge

Society plays a part in securing HSBC climb down

Members will have seen the announcement that, from August, HSBC will open up its Conveyancing Panel to all members of the Law Society Quality Conveyancing Scheme. This represents a significant climb down by the Bank which only a few weeks ago had, at a stroke, gone from an open panel to one of less than 50 firms nationally.

Wolverhampton Law Society contributed to the pressure for change by raising the issue directly with the Bank at both national and local levels. Emphasising the damage that the arrangements were having on local relations the Society also had face-to-face meetings with Wolverhampton MPs to discuss the matter. 

Commenting upon this development Council Member Andrew Lund said:-

“As a Council we felt that if HSBC got away with this then it would be the thin end of the wedge as other Lenders would doubtless have followed suit.

MPs were, in particular, swayed by our argument that HSBC had indirectly benefited from the tax payer bail out of the banking sector and that they would not have been in a position to flex their muscles in this way had free market economics prevailed. 

Another key factor was the reaction of Estate Agents. Having seen difficulties with HSBC funded parties causing Chains to break down some Agents had begun to advise their Clients to be wary about selling to an HSBC funded purchaser.

It would have been nice to get HSBC to climb down fully and revert to an open panel. However, I think that that was never going to be achieved. If Solicitors are serious about conveyancing then they really should get accredited under the Law Society Scheme which looks as though it is getting traction with the CML. Looking around Wolverhampton it is encouraging to see that a significant number of member Firms are early adopters of the Quality Conveyancing Scheme and I know that many are working towards membership.”

Society Golf Team Putts other Professionals in Place

The Society’s Golfers did battle on 23^rd May with representatives from nine other professions and came out top. Held at Enville Golf Club the annual event saw Guy Birkett, Gareth Ruddock, Richard Alderson, Phil Cowell, Frank Calleia and Nick Taylor triumph with a level par 72 and two 68’s giving the team a winning score of 8 under par.

 

Second place was engineered by the Engineers who finished 8 shots behind.

 

Nick Taylor provided the icing on the cake by winning the nearest to the pin competition thus rounding up a successful day for the legal eagles.

 

The Law Society Rose Bowl has now returned to its rightful place in the President’s office.

 

Commenting upon the victory Guy Birkett said:-

 

“It is great to return to winning ways after a few seasons dominated by the Accountants, not least because certain members of that profession ( Mark Botwood ) had, in recent times, developed a tendency to gloat, a trait I am determined to avoid !!.”

 

Pausing to observe that the Accountants had, on this occasion, fielded a team comprising members of rather more mature years he went on to issue a challenge to former protagonists concluding with:-

 

“Botwood, Ross, Fletcher, your guys took one hell of a beating. We expect better opposition for our forthcoming annual challenge match”

 

The next Society Golfing event will be the annual Solicitors / Accountants match at Oswestry on 14^th September. If anyone is interested in taking part please contact Guy at G.Birkett@fbcmb.co.uk.