Bristol Legal Awards 2025 – Dana Denis-Smith OBE Host Speech
Good evening
Ladies and gentlemen
What a pleasure to be with you all tonight and to host these awards – we’ll get to announcing those very soon! Bear with me …
For a reader, like me, there’s something poetic about being in a port city where the adventure story “Treasure Island” begins. I must admit, it is a book I started more times than I care to confess… and I never quite finished it. But, I did catch the important part: it all begins, right here, in Bristol.
I know why I was drawn to reading “Treasure Island” as a child, growing up in communist Romania: it was because it’s a tale of adventure, courage and the occasional mutiny. It’s about finding your bearings when the wind changes; and about keeping your sense of humour when someone’s pinched the rum - or, in your case, when someone else lifts the trophy!
My spirit of discovery makes being here this evening very special - just days ago I marked my 30th year in the UK. I arrived from my own “port of origin” - which is further east…in Transylvania - a place more often associated with sharp fangs than pirate flags.
To me, Bristol has always been a place of movement: of ships, stories, and a certain spirit of adventure. Back in the mid-1700s, when the book’s story starts, this was one of Britain’s great ports: shipbuilding, sugar, tobacco, blue glass, and porcelain all this industrial power poured into a thriving city. It was a place of energy, invention and contradiction - wealth and innovation built, in part, on the terrible legacy of the slave trade.
It is this complexity that makes Bristol’s story so compelling. Perhaps it’s that same restless energy that runs through our profession. After all, lawyers are navigators too: of change, of principle, of progress. And no surprise that the law society here was born, in the midst of this trade growth, and has thrived for over two centuries. I am not surprised that Coralie’s presidential year is guided by inclusion, innovation and impact - hugely relevant themes to this local community.
I came to Britain from Transylvania - yes, the land of Dracula, our best known “export” who landed in a British port… just not this one. This, I like to think explains my stamina for late nights and my aversion to sunlight before coffee - qualities that served me well whilst working as a magic circle solicitor. When I arrived in Britain as a teenager, my first official papers from the Home Office labelled me an “alien.” I’ve kept them ever since - a reminder that belonging isn’t given; it’s built, one act of participation at a time.
The same is true of the law. We like to think of it as one grand tradition, but in truth, it’s a patchwork of stories - people arriving from every direction, carrying their experiences to a shared purpose. Inclusion, then, is our compass. It doesn’t point east or west - it points towards each other. Bristol has a proud, if sometimes overlooked, place in the story of inclusion in the legal profession.
It was here, in July 1920, that women first sat on a jury in England and Wales. Six women and six men heard a case at the Quarter Sessions, and for the first time, a judge addressed a courtroom with the words, “Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury.” It was a simple phrase, but it carried centuries of change.
Not long after, Angela Gradwell Tuckett became Bristol’s first woman solicitor - a civil rights lawyer, pilot, playwright and international hockey player – she proved multitasking is hardly a modern invention. Her legacy reminds us that inclusion isn’t just about who gets through the door; it’s about how they use that space once inside - to create opportunity, fairness, and a sense of belonging for others – aliens, like me
The Bristol Law Society is the oldest local law society in the country. In all that time, it’s had just six women presidents. Six, in more than 250 years. Every one of those women broke a barrier and left a clearer course for those who would follow. That’s both a marker of progress and a reminder of how far we still have to go.
I know invention and imagination have always been in Bristol’s DNA: it connected the world through commerce and innovation. But it was also a city of contradictions - progress intertwined with exploitation. That tension between progress and conscience is something we still navigate in law, as we have witnessed in the past year
Like those early merchants and manufacturers, our profession is once again standing at the edge of change - this time powered not by sails, but by technology. Artificial intelligence is reshaping how we work and deliver justice. And just as Bristol’s industries transformed global trade, we now have a duty to ensure that this new wave of innovation strengthens trust in the law, rather than undermines it.
Innovation isn’t about gadgets or algorithms - it’s about imagination with purpose. It’s about ensuring that technology *serves* the law rather than erodes it. And, let’s be honest, we lawyers have never been shy of a good argument - so let’s argue for the public interest, for trust, for fairness in the digital age. That’s where our real innovation lies – and our legacy.
Captain Smollett in Treasure Island says:
“We must go on, because we can’t turn back.”
That line sums up leadership, doesn’t it? You can’t reverse the tide; you can only sail forward and make sure no one falls overboard. Leadership, after all, isn’t about titles or portraits - though I admit, seeing my own at 113 Chancery Lane as the new DVP was a surreal “pinch me” moment. I thought of that teenager from Transylvania, the “alien”, now hanging (in photo form!) at the entrance to the Reading Room. Leadership is about using your place at the table to make space for others. Some steer from the helm; others patch the sails, chart the route, or keep morale high with a well-timed joke - or at least a strong coffee. All matter.
True impact comes not from how loudly we command, but from how many people we inspire to sail alongside us. Leadership is part courage, part humility, and part curiosity - knowing when to change course, when to hold steady, and when to let someone else take the wheel. If Treasure Island teaches us anything is that the greatest treasures aren’t buried on distant shores - they’re found in the crew we travel with and in the common purpose we all share
Early on in my legal life someone once described the British world to me - a system run by people who love rules, tradition and queuing. Ever since, I thought - can inclusion be my quiet rebellion? Can it be the proof that we can evolve without losing our shape and, yet, make an impact?
Thank you for listening – I wish you all brave new voyages, calmer seas, and, if we’re lucky, the occasional perfectly mixed rum punch or an award… to come?
Dana DENIS-SMITH OBE
6 November 2025