On behalf of all of my partners and other members of Hewitsons (England) we are very much looking forward to hosting delegates and companions to the Spring conference in London and  to what is shaping up to be a very memorable event.  London is one of the World’s great economic centres and attracts more international finance that any other city across the globe and so to be holding the LEI European conference there and in the heart of the City of London itself is a very exciting prospect for us.  Certainly, numbers attending the conference in April are I am told a record for the LEI which is great to hear.   In addition to a very full programme of topics for the main conference, ahead of the arrival of delegates my firm in association with Lindsays, we have looked to promote LEI giving greater recognition to private client work which is an area that all LEI member firms are likely to be involved in to at least some degree.  I am delighted to say that the response to the letter issued by my private client partner, Bernadette O Reilly and by David Reith of Lindsays has received a lot of very strong support.  We are intending to invite those firms that have responded so positively to that initiative to take part in a breakfast meeting to be held ahead of the main conference events on Friday 25 April. The aim will be to discuss how to take this initiative forward and more details of that meeting will be issued shortly.  Also, we see that there is scope to look at other practice areas outside of what might be regarded as the main stream LEI legal topics and in regard to which LEI member firms might gain benefit from cross LEI discussion and the promotion of initiatives.  One of those other areas is property investment and associated development work, including construction, which is my own practice area.  I have had some useful preliminary exchanges on how we might use LEI membership to develop construction as a specific topic but given that the UK attracts more international property investment than any other City in the World, on the morning of Saturday 26 April we are going to inviting LEI delegates to a breakfast meeting on that topic to explore whether this is an area that we might use LEI to take forward.Along with a very exciting companions programme and post conference events for all delegates to enjoy, we look forward to welcoming LEI to London in Spring 2015.Colin JonesManaging Partner, Hewitsons LLP