COMMERCE & INDUSTRY GROUP - APPOINTMENT OF NEW CHAIR

29/09/08

 
Commerce & Industry Group 


The C&I Group is pleased to announce that as from 1 September 2008 the new Chair of the C&I Group (as recognised by The Law Society) and C&I Group Services Limited will be Sapna Bedi FitzGerald.

Sapna is Company Secretary and Head of Legal at LSL Property Services plc (LSL). She has a wealth of experience within the Group and has been a member of the C&I Executive and the NE C&I Group since 1998.

Sapna completed her LLB and LPC at the University of Wales, College Cardiff and qualified in 1998 with the Government Legal Service at the Welsh Office. She moved on to spend two years with Kelda in 1998 and then to the Consumer Credit Trade Association in 2000 for twelve months before moving on to Norwich Union Life in 2001. In 2004 she left to join LSL when the management team completed an MBO of Your Move and e.surv from Norwich Union Life. LSL listed on the London Stock Exchange in November 2006.

Every Chair has a mission for their year, and Sapna is no different. Sapna’s mission can be summarised in two words "member benefits".

As Sapna explains “I would like to say that in my view, lawyers in commerce and industry find themselves in a much better position today than we did ten years ago.

We were perceived back in the old days, as second rate lawyers, who had opted for the soft option and pursued a career in house.

Those of us who work in house, know that it is anything but a soft option. Our clients are very demanding and the work is very challenging.

Thankfully, that perception no longer exists and this has been achieved in huge part by the efforts of the C&I Group. Since I joined the committee, which is 10 years ago, I have benefited from the hard work that has taken place to promote employed lawyers, both as a career option and as a significant purchaser of legal services.

So, for me, the Group exists to (a) promote and protect the interests of its members; and (b) provide services to its members.

In terms of the services that we already provide, these include low cost or free training, subsidised reference books, opportunities to meet and share information and ideas with other in house lawyers and mentoring services.

As I am sure our members will agree, the current services are excellent and we want to do more, so I will listen to you, to find out from you what you want and to look at how we can achieve this for you.

I am really excited about the opportunity to serve the in house community in this way and am looking forward to the next twelve months. In particular, I am looking forward to meeting and talking to as many members as possible and I invite members to contact me by e-mail (Sapna.B.FitzGerald@lslps.co.uk) with any issues or concerns that they wish to discuss. I may not know all the answers, but I will try my best to help. Together, I think we can make a difference!"