After a very successful Annual Dinner in October, November has been very busy and we have a number of events planned for the New Year.

On 11 November I gave a talk to Newcastle College's law students with Pete Black, the Chair of the Newcastle Junior Lawyers Division.  We spoke about our respective careers in the Law and fielded a number of interesting and challenging questions form the audience.  It was a very enjoyable session with some very engaged students.  One piece of feedback was that it is becoming increasingly difficult for students to obtain work experience with law firms in the region.  If you would like to help in this area please contact the course leader, Laura Mitchell at laura.mitchell@ncl-coll.ac.uk. 

The following Wednesday we were privileged to host a webinar with Elizabeth Rimmer, the CEO of LawCare.  As you may be aware LawCare is my President's Charity of the Year.  Elizabeth explained about LawCare and how it can help those in the profession who need its services. 

Later that day we visited the Land Registry in Durham.  A group of us had an excellent session which included a presentation from Land Registry, tour of the building including the Land Charges scanning department and an excellent Q&A.  We hope to repeat the visit next year.  If you would like to take part please let us know.

On Thursday 14^th the County Societies Group produced a Private Client Conference and the following day I hosted a Professional Services roundtable at the WBD office in Newcastle.  Our aim to have a bigger and better legal services sector in the region includes us promoting the professional services sector as a whole. 

Amiqus is one of our sponsors and on the 21^st it hosted an AML Compliance and Client Experience webinar.  The session focused not just on the provision of client identification but also improving the client experience of that process.  If you would like further details of the Amiqus product please contact us. 

Finally in November I attended the Sunderland Law Society's Annual Dinner at the Stadium of Light.  It was an excellent evening, many thanks to Sunderland Law Society for the invitation.  It was fantastic to see the event so well attended and enjoyed by all present.

We have a number of online events in December and our monthly Standing Committee meeting.  You will find details of our events planned for January and February elsewhere in this Newsletter.  I encourage you to take part in as many as you are able.  I want to highlight our LegalTech initiative.  This is being led by our Vice President, Paul Brown.  We have fantastic law firms and tech companies in the region.  We want to bring them together to allow us to be a leader in LegalTech and create opportunities.  A working group is being formed to coordinate our approach.  If you would like to be involved please let us know.

Finally, I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  We have achieved a great deal this year and are eagerly looking forward to 2025. Thank you to you all for your help and assistance, it is greatly appreciated.

If you would like any more information about any of the above please contact mail@newcastlelawsociety.co.uk.  Please remember to follow us on LinkedIn to stay up to date with developments - Newcastle Upon Tyne Law Society: Overview | LinkedIn