BOLTON Law Society, which is now in its 139th year, held its annual dinner at the Last Drop Village.

President of the society, Ajmal Hussain, welcomed the President of the Law Society of England and Wales, Joe Egan, as his guest speaker.

Joe Egan is the second solicitor from Bolton to become President of the national body after Ed Nally of Fieldings Porter who held the role in 2004/5.

Other distinguished guests included Yasmin Qureshi MP, Alan Walsh Coroner for Manchester South and Anthony Shimmin, a recently retired solicitor, who acted as toastmaster.

Since his inauguration in July last year, Joe has travelled to Australia, America, Canada, Japan, Russia, South Korea and Kazakhstan representing the society as well as making a number of trips to Europe.

Alan Walsh, a former partner at Russell & Russell, presented the Trainee of the Year Award, which he sponsors, to Javid Rahim of Bolton Solicitors. Javid, whose father is a serving policeman, thanked Alan, his parents and his training principle Rachel Eckersley for their help in his achievement.

In his speech, Ajmal, a partner in AGH solicitors of St Georges Road, thanked Joe for taking time out of a busy schedule to attend the event and indicated how proud Bolton was to have him as President of such an august body. He went on to thank the firms from Bolton including KBL, Fieldings Porter, HSK, CMA, Russell & Russell, Knights, Auua, AA and Joe Egans. A number of solicitors practicing outside the town also joined in the celebrations. Ajmal urged solicitors who were not members of the society to join and went on to speak about the “Pride in the Profession” campaign launched by the Law Society. The legal sector contributes £32Billion a year to the economy of which £3.6 Billion represents the export of legal services.Solicitors have much to be proud about in the way they oil the wheels of the justice system and the economy.

In his speech Joe Egan described the work he has been doing in advising Government about the importance of legal services to the economy and the importance of getting the right deal to allow solicitors to continue to practice in Europe following Brexit.

At the end of the dinner, on behalf of Bolton Law Society, Ajmal presented Joe with an engraved pen set as a memento.