Anyone can play guitar!

Our chief executive, Lorna Jack, blogs (and vlogs) about an exciting event for your 2020 calendar and invites legal rock stars and groupies to get involved in support of the Lawscot Foundation.

So I have been threatening this for a while. My colleagues at the Law Society have listened to me rattle and hum about a battle of the legal bands for long enough, thinking she’s all talk and no hi-hat. Then along comes a President who says he plays a mean rhythm and the stage is set for Lexfactor!

I would love to tell you this is my original idea but it’s not. There are rock gigs for charity everywhere, but two in particular inspired me into action. The first goes back nearly 15 years - my involvement in a Commitments style work band - a rag tag of economic development professionals who were also amateur musicians who came together to play King Tuts; the Renfrew Ferry; the Arches and the Old Fruit Market in Glasgow, raising more than a few grand for Cash For Kids along the way. An exercise in “team dynamic” if ever I experienced one, but in the end half-decent music and a marvellous bonding experience for we artists and our colleagues. Although an international move saw me split with the band to pursue a solo career, I look back with such fond memories at the collegiality and the tour T-shirt. Hey, Scotland the Band, I miss you guys!

The second was much more recent and saw me in the mosh pit at an (international) battle of the law firm bands at LawRocks -Rome 2018 and then again in Seoul 2019. If you’ve not come across Nick and his LawRocks team look them up. They have been running their gigs for over a decade and have raised £3 million for charities around the world. The bands who step on to their stage - all lawyers, all amateurs and all brilliant, provide their audiences with an exceptional night of entertainment. Their performers practise law everywhere: England; Korea; Cyprus and even from the high seas (cf. Seven Seas a band made up of seven global maritime lawyers) but not Scotland. Why not? We’ve got the talent in our wee legal profession. Haven’t we?

That was the question that our President, John Mulholland sought to answer for me in the margins of the LawRocks Seoul gig. As we shouted at each other over a thrash metal version of “Gangnam style” by what turned out to be the winning Korean band. In summary his answer was a resounding “of course” the Scottish legal profession has this kind of talent and then he reeled off names of Solicitors; Advocates; Sheriffs and even high court judges that he knew for a fact had chops. He knows a lot of musicians. And so the LexFactor idea left the idle musing stage.

So what is LexFactor? It’s a battle of the legal profession/law firm bands that we are organising to raise money for the LawScot Foundation. The Foundation is, as many of you already know, a social mobility charity founded in 2015 to ensure that coming from a less advantageous economic background is no barrier to talented young people who want to join the Scottish legal profession. The 25 men and women who are currently studying law in Scotland as a direct result of their own perseverance and talent and with the assistance of our Foundation, are without exception, remarkable and inspiring individuals achieving outstanding academic success in spite of very challenging circumstances, including homelessness, bereavement and poverty. These are the real people at the centre of LexFactor thinking.

The battle will take place on the evening of Thursday 12 March 2020 at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh and it will be epic.

We plan for between six to eight bands of two to eight band members in any combination of solicitors; advocates; paralegals; other colleagues working in the legal profession and who might work in a single firm or organisation or might be a combination of colleagues from different organisations. The main thing is to come together (right now) to deliver astonishing music. Bands will perform between four and five covers. No original music will ensure a great night of entertainment for the audience!

And of course there will be judges, listening to every band and deciding on an overall winner at the end of the night.

So do you and your colleagues have the talent to form a title winning band? Could you be lifting the inaugural Lexfactor trophy? If the answer to both is yes you can formally register an interest via LexFactor@lawscot.org.uk Hurry up. We only have slots for eight bands and places will be secured first come, first served.

And for the rest of you, with a love of music and excited about the prospect of a unique evening’s entertainment – rocking the casbah (or at least the corn exchange), tickets for the gig are now on sale here at £20 (plus booking fee). Come as you are, have some fun, support your colleagues in our profession and help us raise money for those who will get the opportunity to join it in the future.

Before I close a shout out to Lockton Companies LLP and Titlesolv who through sponsorship are helping us get this idea off the ground. You guys are the best!

There are more details on the Law Society website here and you can follow updates on the event on Twitter @LexFactorBattle

Ground control to Major Tom…commencing countdown engines on…