Member Article

Solicitor is pitching for chart success

A York-based solicitor is hitting all the right notes as part of events to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War.

Emma Ladd, a director and head of commercial law at Coles Solicitors, sings with the York Military Wives’ Choir, one of more than 60 across the country featured on Remember 1918-2018, an album to commemorate the end of the Great War. The album debuted at number 40 in the official chart and number one in Amazon’s classical chart following its release on June 29th.

Emma, who joined the choir last year when she moved to Yorkshire, said: “I love to sing and have sung in choirs, pantos and musical theatre since I was a child. I have never sung with an all-female choir and wanted to try that, as well as building up more of a network, as I was moving to a new area.”

Emma has strong family links with the Military - her husband, David, has worked as a communications technician in the Royal Navy for 12 years, serving in Afghanistan, Bahrain and Cyprus. Additionally, her parents were both serving soldiers and her brother is a Sergeant in the Army.

She said: “Coming from a military family, getting involved in the choir was very important to me. The support network is so valuable, and I don’t need to explain life as a Forces wife to them as they already know.

“They have had similar experiences, so they can sympathise with aspects of military life, including my husband being away or the uncertainty that comes with the Forces life, such as plans being changed at short notice.

“There is absolutely no judgment if you have to drop out of commitments or rehearsals at the last minute because your husband is going away or has just come back unexpectedly.”

Emma joined Coles Solicitors, a firm with its own strong links to the Military, in January 2017.

She said: “Coles is incredibly supportive of our Armed Forces. Our charity of the year for 2017 was the Soldiers Sailors Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA), a charity that is extremely close to my heart, and we also have a number of ex-serving personnel and military wives amongst the team.

“The team has been massively supportive of my singing – they’ve been great about allowing me extra time for rehearsals and coming to watch as many performances as they can.”

Director Alex Spurr said: “Coles is proud of our links with the Military and it’s great to see Emma so involved with the choir – it’s amazing to think we have our own chart-topper in the office.

“We’ve seen first-hand the support the choir offers to serving families and we wish it every success for the future.”

Coles Solicitors offers a range of personal and commercial legal services from 11 offices across Yorkshire and the Tees Valley. For more information, visit www.coles-law.co.uk.

For more information on the Military Wives Choir, visit www.militarywiveschoirs.org.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Harvey & Hugo .