Category: ACS family

Alice Kinder, ACS solicitor, talks about helping students as part of our social purpose volunteering scheme.

We believe in giving back to the community. That’s why all staff at Anthony Collins Solicitors (ACS) have the opportunity to get involved with our social purpose volunteering scheme. Running for several years, ACS employees can spend up to three days per year volunteering whilst still being paid.

Our employees find opportunities that are the perfect fit for them. Whether that’s helping at a school or church group, painting furniture at a care home, or even helping run a book festival for the local community. After volunteering, we encourage them to share their experience with others in the team.

Volunteering at Queensbridge School

Alice is a keen advocate of social mobility and equal opportunities. Recently, as part of the scheme, she supported an end of year Viva interview day at Queensbridge School. We asked Alice about her experience and why social purpose volunteering is important to her.

How do you find volunteering opportunities?

ACS is often approached centrally by local organisations and projects in need of volunteers. Often, where an ACS employee has volunteered somewhere, we’ll be asked to return. On other occasions, staff involved in organising projects will recruit colleagues to help out. When I organised a workshop with the National Literacy Trust last year, I needed six or seven people to help, so I reached out to see if anyone wanted to get involved. Or if there’s something you’re already connected to outside of work, then you can use your days to support that cause.

Can you tell us about your experience at Queensbridge School?

A group of us from ACS helped at their end of year Viva interview day. I interviewed about five or six students from different year groups. It gave the students experience of taking part in a formal discussion with a professional. We talked about their progress over the academic year and helped them to focus their goals and development needs.

Some were interested in studying law, but many had other ambitions. It was rewarding to be able to support the students in whatever they wanted to achieve and encourage them to think about what they needed to do to get there.

What did it mean to you to be involved with a project like this?

I was the first in my family to attend university and when thinking about becoming a solicitor, it wasn’t easy for me to get work experience. I remember sending my CV out to lots of organisations and getting no response. When I began training as a solicitor, I realised there was a real need for support for people who don’t have professional connections.

I believe people who are in established professions should take the time to help those whose background means they might struggle to access the same opportunities. Many of us struggled when we were in their position, I certainly did. Even if I only spend an hour with a student, I know I can make a positive impact.

How did the pandemic impact the scheme?

We haven’t stopped volunteering. I’ve done a few things online already. For example, in November, I supported a social mobility charity, The Ahead Partnership, with their female careers panel. The panel was made up of a range of female professionals, such as lawyers, accountants and engineers. We dialled into a local school and gave the students the chance to ask questions. The aim was to inspire girls and help them to understand the range of opportunities available to them. I also organised a speed networking event with the Birmingham Law Society social mobility sub-committee to enable aspiring lawyers from disadvantaged backgrounds to build connections.

Glow Day shows the practical side of our social purpose, raising funds for children with serious brain injury.

The Child Brain Injury Trust (CBIT) supports families caring for children with serious brain injury. By pushing for early intervention in diagnosis and treatment, they help children enjoy a better quality of life and achieve their true potential. This commitment is a perfect fit with our own purpose of ‘improving lives for individuals’.

For nearly 15 years we’ve been supporting and partnering with CBIT in helping families pick up the pieces and deal with the consequences of catastrophic brain injury. Over that time, we’ve become the official provider of legal services for the West Midlands region for such families. But we wanted to do more.

The charity makes a real impact and effectively saves the NHS a significant amount of money but sadly lacks substantial funding to further its aims and objectives. So, aside from other smaller fundraisers peppered throughout the year, for the last six years we’ve been taking the opportunity to raise money for their annual Glow Day campaign in autumn. This event highlights the need for ‘children to be seen, not hurt’ when using roads and footpaths. It was a day we felt we could get behind CBIT, raise much-needed funds and make a difference. We are proud to consistently be their leading fundraiser for Glow Day nationally.

“We’ve been able to increase our capacity to support families by working with Anthony Collins Solicitors (ACS). And increasing our capacity has had a big impact. But strategically as well, we’ve also been able to develop our organisation and our objectives on how we’re going to deliver our services in the future.”

Lisa Turan, chief executive, Child Brain Injury Trust

It all started with samosas

We started small, selling samosas in the office and wearing bright clothing. Every year since, Glow Day has just become a bigger and bigger event for the firm. Curry-in-a-hurry, retro-themed school dinners, Bollywood, Halloween and more. Now the whole firm looks forward to the event with increasing anticipation. The challenge for the personal injury and clinical negligence team who lead the event, is how to make it different and engaging each year!

This year obviously presented a huge social distancing challenge. But we knew that CBIT’s clients were vulnerable and shielding from the impact of Covid-19 – so had even less contact than most. We decided we would go to them and provide a socially distanced bit of company and hand out gifts.

We divided the local area into regions and various teams took to the streets, walking, running or cycling to see families, some of whom hadn’t had much human contact. In raising much-needed funds, we covered 78 miles between us, brought a much-needed smile to their faces, and made a huge difference during a very difficult time for them. 

We raised £2,705 for CBIT, which will help the charity continue to deliver their life-changing services and alleviate some of the burden on the NHS (particularly at this very difficult time for our doctors and nurses).

Behind all the fun, frolics and bright colours, we’re delighted we managed to live out the ACS belief in social purpose in a very practical way for our clients, CBIT and as a team. In a year when CBIT had its government funding cut from £200,000 to £15,000 – the money raised went some way to helping them continue providing such vital support to those individuals who needed it most.

When a colleague’s little boy was diagnosed with a brain tumour, the ACS team fundraised and helped his family.

We spend more waking time with our colleagues than our family. So, a big question for us is – how do we create a supportive environment? The answer is simple – we celebrate the good times, and we support each other through the bad times. Just like any other family.

Throughout 2019 and 2020, we supported one of our colleagues, a legal executive in our property team, who was facing the most challenging situation. Their 11-year-old son, Ben, was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour.

Ben and his mum were experiencing long stays at hospital while receiving extensive treatment. Anthony Collins Solicitors (ACS) supported his mum by giving her time off from work so she could be at Ben’s side and support his brother.

And then the ACS family stepped in. Numerous colleagues decided to find ways to fundraise. Everyone wanted to give Ben and his family treats and fun experiences in between his gruelling hospital stays.

From samosas to a sponsored bike ride

Our fundraising activities kicked off with the sales of an array food, from samosas through to cakes. Five people in the ACS team completed our inaugural Manchester to Birmingham 95-mile sponsored bike ride in October 2019. As we had only just opened our office in central Manchester, it seemed a fitting way to bring everyone at ACS together to support a very sick boy who we were close to.

Celebrations at the finish line

As the intrepid team posted photos of their journey travelling south, the support built up until they arrived at the Birmingham office. There they were met by 60 ACS people applauding for them – and more importantly, showing support for our colleague in such challenging circumstances.

Ben’s mum was with us at the end of the bike ride. She was touched that we were all there to stand with her and support her on her uncertain journey.

A life of love, joy and fun

While we raised the funds so Ben could enjoy his time outside of hospital and supported his mum, he sadly died just before Christmas 2019. But as a family, we remember the fun he had in his life and the joy he brought to others.

“Sadly, Jack, Ben’s brother, was diagnosed with leukaemia two weeks after us saying our final goodbye to Ben. The firm continues to support me by allowing me to reduce my hours so that I am able to attend hospital with Jack.”

Julie Parton, executive at ACS

Our journey as a family continues and we’ll support each other whatever challenges we might face along the way.

Cooking together

Rankeshwar has a passion for homemade Indian cooking. He fondly remembers eating his mum’s pakoras straight out the frier paired with tangy tamarind chutney. Over the years, he’s picked up other recipes from family members, adapting them to his own lifestyle. Not many people have time to spend hours heating milk to infuse cardamom – especially busy solicitors!

So, when it came to thinking of a way to raise money, he had the idea of running Zoom cook-a-long sessions. He’d show other ACS employees and their families how to make an authentic Indian meal. Stuck at home during lockdown, the ACS family and friends jumped at the opportunity to try something new. Initially, Rankeshwar only mentioned it to a few people, but then as word spread, more people wanted to get involved.

Exceeding his ambitions

The positive comments came flooding in. Some people told him that it was the first time they’d cooked, ate and washed up together as a family during lockdown, while others said it lifted their spirits during this difficult time.

Rankeshwar knew every penny would make a difference to the charity, so he set a modest goal of raising £300. But the sessions went down better than he ever imagined, resulting in him raising an impressive £1,400.

“It was particularly pleasing to receive comments from people who had never tried to make Indian food at home before but said they really enjoyed doing so – from selecting unusual ingredients that they would never usually put on their weekly shopping list, to doing an actual shop in hope of finding what was needed, to actually cooking it the following week.”

Rankeshwar Batta, partner at ACS

Top 5% of fundraisers

To thank everyone that took part in the cook-a-long sessions, Rankeshwar also created an eBook packed with traditional Indian recipes, from cocktails and mocktails, to chilli chicken and gajrela with stem ginger ice-cream.

ACS were also awarded the accolade of being in the top 5% of fundraisers across the UK with JustGiving for March 2021. This wouldn’t have been possible without the ACS family and friends coming together to support great causes like raising awareness of cauda equina syndrome.