Guest writer: James

I was reminded by Barry not to forget the photo; so in keeping with the 1981 theme on 5 Live this morning I thought you'd all enjoy a circa 1984 version of me. Thank God there were no camera phones in those days and only a few closely guarded records of my exploits remain.

1981 was of course the last big Royal Wedding and if there's any fluffed lines this time they'll never hear the end of it with YouTube et al. We all know the horror that can be The Wedding Video! Scott has yet to watch his and is banned from Friday viewing unless it gets an airing first. Sounds like Scott will be doing the housework on Friday...

Talking of housework: we are all tasked with an office spring clean in the next few weeks with Shred-it coming in on the 17th May to take care of all our confidential clutter. I see Barry has got the jump on us over the holiday weekend so he can dictate the clear-desk policy with a clear conscience (for once). He even claims to have given the hen house a deep clean on Saturday.

As always Barry has big plans even for this reduced working week:

Tomorrow he's meeting Alva Brangam QC to pick his brains on mediation in NI. He's also meeting Melanie Donnelly from Full Circle too. On Thursday he's back in the office with internal meetings and on Friday he's off to Dublin to meet Gerry Rooney of Baker Tilly and John Hogan of Lemans Solicitors. Obviously he'll be watching the big event on his i-phone? For the long weekend he's off to Moscow (as you do) to stay with some friends. Now they do May day in style!

The rest of us who are here this week will be trying to catch up on paperwork with the brief hiatus in conference work. Quick, better go, I think I hear the paper police coming!

Enjoy the holiday - however long you get.

James

Guest writer: John, 18th April 2011

After seeing this photo of the HR Conference last week and how well the tables looked, it is rumoured that the Middletons may be asking Legal-Island to help organise the Royal Wedding! However, with a few staff off on holidays from Thursday, we may have to wait until Harry finds his princess before before we get invited to do the job.

With everyone looking forward to Easter and hoping the good weather lasts, its another active week on the Island.

Now that our CEO, Barry Phillips, I guess we wont be able to use his office and we'll have to get back to looking terribly busy again! Barry's in internal meetings pretty much all of today. He is meeting Julian Simpson of Exped8 for lunch. On Tuesday he's attending the Payroll Matters conference in Belfast albeit very briefly. On Wednesday and Thursday he is in strategy meetings with certain staff members. On Good Friday he is in doing a lot of work while others are off enjoying themselves.

Scott will be chairing a meeting of the Antrim/Ballymena HR Network on Tuesday the 19th April. The meeting will be held at Decora Blinds in Lisburn and the guest speaker will be Emma-Jane Flannery of Arthur Cox solicitors, who will be discussing employment law and social media.

Ainsley will be involved in the strategy meetings this week, and has a lunch meeting with Anne Monaghan from Inform PR tomorrow.

James is busy preparing for the finance meeting tomorrow and then strategy meetings on Wednesday and Thursday.

Jayne has her usual meetings this week, as well as the strategy meetings later in the week. Tomorrow she has a Business in the Community meeting at 4pm, and she has volunteered to come in to the office on Good Friday to cover the phones.

In what sounds like an exciting meeting, Heather will be speaking to Bertrand from Supernova Productions tomorrow afternoon.

Have a nice week.

Monday 11th April 2011

Guest writer Phyllis McMahon

We had exciting news here at Legal-Island on Friday afternoon. Julie rang to let us know -Baby Grace Lynn McCloskey was born at 11.05 and has sandy hair with blue eyes and in her mother’s words is “just perfect”. Congratulations to Julie and Peter I'm sure all the sleepless nights will be worth it.

It has been a glorious weekend, spirits are high as we go into another very busy week.

Today Barry is meeting the company coach, Richard O’Rawe and then has internal meetings with senior staff this afternoon. Tomorrow he’s off to London for a business growth seminar. On Wednesday he has a meeting in the City and Thursday and Friday no doubt he’ll be out networking or working on a business development idea.

Today Jayne is off to Manchester for Agency and Data Protection meetings which will run tomorrow. On Thursday she is hosting at the HR Conference and for the rest of week she has internal meetings.

Peter is volunteering with the Ballycraigy Primary School footballers on Wednesday afternoon and looking after the exhibitors at the HR Conference on Thursday

Scott will be chairing the NI HR Conference at the Ramada on Thursday 14 April.

Heather is at a meeting on Tuesday with Antrim Borough Council to discuss their fundraising for McMillan Palliative Care Unit. On Wednesday she is at Corrs Corner for the Education Law Update On Thursday she is attending the Women In Business Membership Information Seminar and then she will be taking the hockey at Ballycraigy Primary School.

Kerry has the NI Education Law Update on Wednesday in Corrs, which Heather will be kindly hosting for her. She will be out at the NI Annual HR Conference on Thursday at the Ramada with Peter, Jayne and Scott as chair.

Enjoy your week.

Guest Writer: Jacqui, 4th April 2011

It's hard to believe that the first quarter of the year has already passed.

We finished off the quarter with Age & Retirement event in Belfast, which by all accounts was a very successful day and well done to all those concerned. We are also holding this event in Dublin on June 2nd.

I would like to welcome Allison Sutherland onto the Island. She previously worked for Duncan Bannatyne and left his employ to move over to N.Ireland, so she comes with high credentials. Allison will be joining us for the next two months in a marketing consultancy capacity.

This week we have Schrader making use of the Training centre on Thursday and as far as staff movements go, we are busy as usual.

Barry is off to Dublin today and will be back on the Island tomorrow.

On Tuesday, Scott will be meeting Invest NI representatives, along with Penny Thornberry of P Thornberry Solutions. On Wednesday, Scott will be in Dublin to meet lawyers from both ByrneWallace solicitors and Hayes solicitors about some of our Republic of Ireland events. Scott will be working from home on Thursday and Friday.

Our MD, Jayne is leaving today and jetting off to London for 2 events, Data Protection and Agency Workers which we are running in conjunction with Squire Sanders Hammonds. Then Jayne is back in the office on Thursday, when she and Ainsley will be interviewing candidates for a Marketing Internship.

Heather is again, heading to Dublin where she will be hosting our Essentials of Employment Law and Dealing with Teacher Misconduct on Wednesday and on Thursday she will be at Discipline and Underperformance Matters.

Peter is volunteering with the footballers of Ballycraigy P.S on Wednesday afternoon. And on Thursday evening he is attending a social media event at Citi Golf.

Donna is at the launch of Safe Place Initiative in Antrim on Thursday which has been organised by Women's Aid.

From everyone here on the Island, have a great week ahead!!

Guest Writer - Arnold, 28 March

Welcome to the Legal-Island Blog.

Last week saw the start of mental health awareness week . We at Legal-Island took an active role so last Thursday we had a relaxation day, all staff had a 10 minutes break and listened to a relaxation podcast. Friday was a ‘’Fruity’’ day where everybody had a healthy lunch and some fruit smoothies .Today we had the option of going for a short walk or being part of a Wii bowling competition at lunch time.

Our training centre will be use by Royal College of GP’s on Wednesday and Health Improvement Committee on Thursday.

Today is a Julie’s last day before she heads off on maternity leave. We wish her all the best and looking forward to seeing her back in Legal-Island.

Networking:

Jayne

On Tuesday Jayne is attending Recruitment and Selection workshop at the Leighinmor House Hotel in Ballymena

Wednesday morning she is attending the IoD Reform Club in Belfast for an IoD Young Directors Forum

Friday she is in Dublin for Association of Coaching Annual Meeting

Heather

Heather is in Ballycraigy Primary School helping out with the hockey on Thursday.

Ainsley

Ainsley is going to coach junior football at Ballycraigy Primary School on Wednesday afternoon, followed by a visit to Parkhall College to continue with the Young Enterprise initiative.

Scott

Scott will be mediating in a dispute on Tuesday and will be chairing the ‘Age and Retirement’ event at the Ramada Hotel, Shaw’s Bridge, on 31 March. He may be working from home on Wednesday and/or Friday

Kerry

Kerry will be out hosting the Age and Retirement Event at the Ramada,Shawsbridge, on Thursday.

Barry

Barry's head is buzzing today after attending a seminar in London over
the weekend. He's meeting Will McKee from Linkubator over lunch today
and is in the office all day tomorrow. On Wednesday morning he's
attending a breakfast seminar at the Radisson Row Valley Country Park
delivered by the head of the Bank of England. For the rest of the time
he's in the office working on new programmes. On Saturday he flies to
Geneva for the weekend. How do the Swiss say "Lucky Pup" I wonder?

Guest Writer Jayne Finlay 21st March 2011

Hello to another week on the Island! And a busy one it is too...

After a week off it fills like I've never been away, somehow Island House does not have quite the same ring as Top of the Rock but I couldn't stay (or afford to stay!) in New York forever! So I'm back to face the challenges ahead!

A big Legal-Island welcome to our new start Debbie! Debbie joins us as a part time administrator working every Monday, Tuesday and Friday - we look forward to working with you Debbie!

And so this weeks networking begins...

Barry has a packed week as ever. He’s meeting Will McKee Monday afternoon to discuss some business issues. On Tuesday morning he’s meeting Peter O’Reilly from Mediation Northern Ireland before attending the launch of the Irish News Awards at the Belfast Waterfront Hall. That same afternoon he’s attending a seminar delivered by Ira Koretsky through until 6p.m. after which he’s hosting a dinner discussion on the way forward for mediation in NI.

On Wednesday he’s at an export seminar in the morning at the Innovation centre. On Thursday he’s at a breakfast seminar delivered by Brian Dunlop and that yet another seminar straight after that delivered by the Centre for Competitiveness. On Friday Barry’s in the office all day before flying off to London for an all day EBA seminar on Saturday.

Scott is meeting with Joe Blair of MBS and Penny Thornberry on Tuesday to discuss customer care events. On Friday Scott is visiting Decora Blinds in Lisburn as the guest of HR Manager Mark McGurnaghan.

Ainsley is meeting Paula Milligan (Marketing Consultant) on Wednesday morning, followed by football at Ballycraigy and Young Enterprise on Wednesday afternoon. Ainsley as always will be on the ball generating more sales for our conferences.

I am in and our of meetings most of Monday, on Wednesday I am at the Europa Hotel with Kerry for a WIB and Chamber of Commerce Networking event. After this I will be helping out with the Ballycraigy school hockey team.

Heather is off to Dublin tomorrow for a number of ROI events and on Thursday the Training Centre holds Section 75

That's a lot to be getting on with for this week I think!

See you all soon!

Guest Writer - Heather, 14th March 2011

Hello all, or should I say cock-a-doodle-doo!

That's right Barry finally got the Legal-Island hens and what stunning chicks they are! We have 4 Aruncan hens which will hopefully lay some lovely blue/green eggs. Everyone is more than welcome to call round to meet Biatta, Britney, Christina and last but not least Henrietta.

It's an egg-citing week this week at the Island, with of course lots of networking as usual. Here is what we are all at this week:

Barry

is standing in for MD, Jayne Finlay, (who’s in New York) leading the troops in the Monday morning meeting and the Ops meeting immediately after. On Tuesday, Barry’s out for Olympic tickets just like everyone else. Cycling, rowing, and the men’s 100 metres is what he’s after by all accounts. On Tuesday afternoon he’s meeting Bill McCartney from Net4wise owls. On Wednesday he’s attending a seminar delivered by John McKee all about better export techniques. On Wednesday lunch he’s meeting Peter O’Reilly from Mediation Northern Ireland and then coach, Richard O’Rawe. He’s taking his St Patrick’s Day on Friday going to Milan for the weekend for a dose of the dolce vita. I wonder will his chicks miss him?

Scott

Scott will be chairing the HR Network meeting on 15 March. The guest speaker is Bill McCartney from Net 4 Wise Owls. Bill will be discussing the positive uses of social networking for HR professionals.

On Friday Scott will be getting his picture taken alongside other speakers from the Northern Ireland HR Conference at the Ramada Hotel in Belfast. Watch out for allegorical carrots. The picture will be used in their Business Section by our partners at the Belfast Telegraph. The conference will take place on 14th April at the Ramada Hotel.

Ainsley

Tuesday – meeting Bill McCartney to discuss social media, particularly our Facebook strategy
Wednesday – meeting Paula Milligan (consultant) re: marketing initiatives, then out in the afternoon to Ballycraigy Primary School (football) and Parkhall College (Young Enterprise).
Friday – morning photoshoot at the Ramada Shaw’s Bridge with the speakers for the HR Conference

The Events team

We will be attending the Holiday Inn, Belfast Launch Night

Donna

Will be volunteering on Wednesday at Ecos centre as part of the 'Saint for a Day' scheme run by Business in the Community.

Independent health care providers will be using the training centre on Wednesday.

Please check out our 'Recommendations of the Month' page online where we provide up- to-date information on the very best contacts that we use.