Just One More Thing….by Johanne Spittle, Director & Head of Litigation

I have been lucky to have been the President of the Yorkshire Law Society since last summer and this has given me a unique opportunity to meet with lawyers and other professionals and get an understanding of their businesses. It is all too easy to only hear the bad news and overlook all the good things that are happening around us; being able to engage with lawyers and other professionals in the region has opened my eyes to just how much positivity there is and how resourceful and creative we are! 

Covid-19 certainly made it clear to even the smallest professional business that the successful businesses were those embracing technology and using it to achieve greater efficiency and a competitive advantage. You can now contact your trusted professional using an app or through a client portal. Many recent advances and changes in working practices were put in place during the last three years when it became apparent that there needed to be a new approach to service provision and the client experience.

We have all read about recruitment problems and the ‘Great Retirement’: a problem across all sectors. However, as President of the Yorkshire Law Society I have been lucky to meet some wonderful young lawyers who are enthusiastic about their chosen career and love the work that they are doing. We have two local universities ranked in the top 20 for their Law degree courses and here in York we have recently seen our Junior Lawyers Division bringing together York’s junior legal professionals and organising successful and well attended events; this bodes well for the future of the legal profession in York and the surrounding area.

Some years ago I recall being told that the future of the legal sector could only be ‘bigger was better’; however we have seen many smaller entrants into the market with boutique law firms offering discrete legal services and many clients preferring a more traditional and the ‘personal touch’ from their professional advisers. Clients are well served by the wide range of diverse firms across the whole Yorkshire region that are providing a full spectrum of services and all doing it in different ways.

When I started my legal training all of my colleagues were male. Since 1990 women have represented over 60% of new entrants into the profession and there are now more women than men practicing as solicitors. Did you know that the first woman solicitor was admitted on 18 December 1922 and how things have changed in the last 100 years? Hopefully the image of solicitors as slightly unapproachable middle aged white men has long since gone! One of the Law Society’s aims is to support and promote a profession that is diverse and inclusive and this initiative is supported by local Law Societies such as the Yorkshire Law Society and others throughout the country.

As President I have been proud to be able to have witnessed first-hand the creativity, vibrancy and resilience of our legal businesses in York and North Yorkshire which has certainly given me optimism for the year ahead.