Secondments and the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games

Ruth Griffin: We are extremely proud to be the Official Legal Advisers to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Our work has involved bringing in a wide variety of teams from across the firm to support Birmingham 2022 in creating a foundation for an event in which history will be made.

Secondments have been really important to our role as Official Legal Advisers to Birmingham 2022.

They were a key part of our engagement and our appointment and there's two reasons actually why they're really important.

Number one is it creates excellent relationships with the client, understanding their needs with us as their legal advisers, but also it provides fantastic opportunities to our people to work so closely with a client in a different environment as to which they would be normally familiar with.

Shah Begum: I am on secondment to the Games Organising Committee (OC). Back at Gowling WLG I am a senior construction paralegal, here at the Games I am the project assistant to the chairman of the Organising Committee. I'm based in the Legacy Integration team, so I'm using all of my transferable skills that I used at Gowling WLG such as stakeholder management, communication skills, drafting skills to really make the most of this opportunity here at the Games. I look after all of the things that will be left behind for local residents after the Games have rolled out of town, so things like what will happen to our venues - making sure that they're well used and well loved, looking after our amazing volunteer workforce that we will have at Games time and just finding a routine for everybody within the community that wants to celebrate the Games being in the region.

Kate Hawkins: So as an IP lawyer, I was really proud to take on the role as brand protection manager for nine months last year. This role involved working closely with a number of teams within the Organising Committee, so whether that be to develop, exploit and protect the Games' brand assets and their marketing rights, as well as advising on a number of advertising law issues, so whether that be the launch of the ticketing campaign or the unveiling of Perry, the Mascot, as well as the sustainable messaging that the OC wants to run and a number of other advertising law issues.

Heledd McBride: As part of my secondment I've been fortunate enough to be able to have a 360 experience of ticketing for an international sporting event. I have been involved in drafting the original ticketing contract, the ticketing T&Cs. I've also then dealt with queries from the public in relation to the tickets purchased. In addition to that, I'm also the legal lead for the Birmingham 2022 Ceremonies, Culture and Queen's Baton Relay department. That's been fantastic. I've been dealing with Commonwealth Games Associations across the whole Commonwealth in managing the transportation of the Baton from country to country during the pandemic, which has been an experience in itself and I'm now dealing with a domestic leg of the Queen's Baton Relay and can't wait to see it.

One of the major advantages of going on secondment I think is the exposure to the client's internal strategy and the commercial pragmatism that you need to bring to being an in-house lawyer. So I think I came back with a greater appreciation for the competing priorities and parameters really that our clients have to face every day.

Kate: I always felt really supported by my team back at Gowling WLG while I was on secondment and I really was grateful for this given it could be quite intense being a team of one as the brand protection manager. It's been brilliant to step back from the day-to-day work and just think to myself, I've been working on the Commonwealth Games, something I don't think I'll probably get to do again in the future so I've really appreciated the chance to work on it this time and I cannot wait for it to take place this summer.

Shah: 100%. I would recommend secondment to anyone at any level and Gowling WLG have really proved that they are willing to support secondments at every level. You don't have to be the senior engaging client partner to be able to have these amazing opportunities. It's just a chance to go out and do something out of your comfort zone, out of the ordinary, a chance to really get into the shoes of the organisation that you're on secondment to, really understand their needs and just see life from the other side of the fence.

This is an opportunity I would never have done for myself. By the time I came on secondment I'd worked at Gowling WLG for coming up to 16 years. I probably wouldn't have left Gowling to take up a temporary opportunity even as fantastic as the Commonwealth Games but being on secondment has allowed me to do that and kind of build on my skill set and then know that actually I'm going to be going back to Gowling WLG and everything that I've learned here I'm just going to put back into use and invest back into Gowling WLG.

Heledd: Personally I think every fee earner should go on secondment. It gives such a fantastic insight to the workings of the client. You see the pressures that they're working on so that when they're asking for something urgently you realise how urgent it is and why it's urgent, giving you a real appreciation for the pressures that your clients are under and the support that we can give them as their lawyers.

Being on secondment has given me a fantastic opportunity to try new things. I was a Projects lawyer for the best part of 22 years and I've come here, experienced things I couldn't imagine I could have experienced anywhere else and it's been a joy and a pleasure meeting so many new people from all walks of life from all over the world.