I've been a bit lax with blogging over the last year. A sign of how busy my work has been. So let's start with a belated Happy New Year and hoping that all my readers had some sort of downtime over the festive period. What has inspired me to commit to a new blog? Simple. It's the opportunity to raise some money for Law Centres and advice services. If you want to cut to the chase, please go
here and sponsor me to do a skydive on July 23, 2023. If you want to talk about corporate sponsorship of this effort separately then get in touch.
Currently I
give 5% of my annual profits to a nominated charity. In recent years the beneficiary has been
Central England Law Centre. That is where I started my career in the legal world - as CEO of what was then Coventry Law Centre. These services are vital parts of the justice system, but, importantly, are part of the foundations of civil society. Law Centres are more than non-profit law firms - though they are that as well. Beyond offering free legal advice and representation to local communities, they take strategic cases to change rules, campaign on local issues affecting marginalised communities and build capability, capacity and partnerships to tackle the issues of their neighbourhoods and cities. Law Centres use the law to achieve real change. I am proud to have worked in one and to continue to support it.
But it's not enough. Law Centres and advice agencies have been hit by cuts in legal aid over the last ten years. And a rise in the cost of living is leading to greater hardship for people already on the poverty line. So we need to do more to support these services. The
London Legal Support Trust has led the fight in London and the South East for many years - raising money to help frontline services. I am now going to do my bit to help them fundraise.
On July 8, 2023 I am doing a skydive. I will go up to 10,000 ft (about two miles) and, in tandem with a professional skydiver, will leap out the plane. I will free fall at about 120mph, and subject to a little luck and other's expertise, a parachute will then open and it will go quiet as I float back to earth. I've done this before. I did a similar fundraise back in 2013 - and there is
video proof of how scared I looked - and the picture above of that scary/thrilling moment.
So please sponsor me. You know it's an important cause. I hope all my readers, friends, colleagues, clients, and even the lawyers whose market I have tried to disrupt can find a way to help me get to a big number. In the words of Bob Geldof,
'Don't go to the pub tonight. Please, stay in and give me the money.'
Thank you - I know that between us we can raise a load.
Sponsor me here please. Now cue the jokes about the chance to throw me out of a plane...
