When I arrived at Hove Lawns, I was
surprised at how many stalls and
exhibitors there were; Paddle is a
huge event. Everybody was cheerfully
squelching about in the mud with a coffee
and bacon butty in hand and laughing
about the “mad English”.
The MWB marquee was beautifully
decked out with seaside images, palm
trees, sofas, a bar and the obligatory lime
green bunting. Liza (our PR manager)
and Laurence (our head of business
development) had obviously put a lot of
effort into making it look so appealing and
quickly told us all off for dumping our wet
coats and umbrellas all over the place.
Members of staff had volunteered to help
out for the duration of the weekend.
and I returned to the marquee to don our
judges’ outfits including the fetching (but
rather itchy) wigs. It was at this point that
we all became a bit nervous about the
task before us and concluded that a quick
tipple would allay our nerves.
The four of us lined up to enter the sea
with the other competitors and, after a bit
of a push and a shove, were soon afloat.
Thankfully Paddle is not a race and so
there was no frantic paddling to overtake
the others, although we did get into a
nice rowing rhythm thanks to Laurence’s
We had entered the Paddle Something
Unusual event (sponsored by MWB) and
had spent many weeks designing and
building our unique Lime Green Legal
Machine. After swathing our Lady Justice
in gold fabric and checking that her
sword and scales were firmly secured,
we carried her down to the beach.
Katherine Leppard (one of our associate
solicitors¬) had come prepared with drills
and screwdrivers and did a fantastic job
of fixing Lady Justice’s legs to the raft.
Once we were satisfied that she wasn’t
going to budge even in choppy waters,
Laurence, Vicky (one of our trainee
solicitors), Ros (one of our paralegals)
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