A day in the life of a Sports Representative

My name is Ellie Whitehead and I am the Sports representative for the Leeds JLD. When I am not helping out with the JLD I am working as a Construction Litigation Associate in DAC Beachcroft's Professional and Commercial Risk team. Primarily we act for insurance companies in defence of construction professionals such as architects, contractors, quantity surveyors.

How does a regular day go for you?

My day to day role sees me working with multiple fee earners across all our various locations in the country. No two days are the same and no two construction cases are the same. One day I am dealing with an inadvertent sprinkler system activation the next structural issues in a swimming pool and since the Grenfell Tower Disaster I also deal with a lot of fire/safety and cladding claims. It’s a very technical area of law and so I work regularly with industry experts, using their expertise to facilitate legal arguments in defence of our clients.

What made you want to get involved in the LJLD Committee?

I first became interested in the LDLJ committee 3 years ago when my housemate was on the committee and I saw first hand what was involved in running the organisation. I was new to the area and only just qualified so I wanted to become a part of the committee to make some new connections in the industry and be able to have an input into the way junior lawyers network, especially when you consider it’s a relatively new concept for a lot of us. 

What does your role require you to do?

I started on the committee as the secretary but then moved to being the sports rep, where I have been the past 2 years. Sports are a huge passion of mine, so I definitely think this is the role I was made for. The role mostly involves sourcing local sports/exercise related businesses who represent a good opportunity for an alternative/sweaty networking event and discussing with them date/time/capacity/price/content of the potential class. Once this is agreed, you draft the comms for the event and get this sent out to start whipping up interest in the event! The actual event usually runs itself as the business will take over and sort this themselves.

Separately, there is also the opportunity to contribute towards the charity of the year through sports tournaments. I myself have organised mixed netball and football tournaments the aim of which is to have lots of fun and utilise the entry fee for firms towards charity money. These events usually require a lot of organisation but they are always worth the effort.

Being on the LJLD committee has seen me make not only connections but great friends and given me a real sense of confidence when it comes to networking. I would encourage anyone who is interested in potentially becoming a part of the committee to get involved, you wont regret it!