Pro Bono 2012 | The beautiful game

Dartford FC has a long and varied history which began when the club was formed in 1888. After many years of reasonable levels of success, disaster struck in 1992 when the club lost its ground and faced financial ruin. After many years spent sharing other grounds, the club returned to its home in Dartford in 2006. At this point the club recognised the significant legal involvement and the assistance that would be required. As I was working for a local firm and had connections with the general manager of the club, I was contacted to discuss the possibility of taking an unpaid seat on the board, which I accepted.

My involvement is primarily to oversee the legal issues. As can be imagined there are a lot of contractual issues but it extends further into nuisance, intellectual property, gambling, litigation, licensing, property, media and employment, to name but a few.

I therefore call on colleagues for assistance on occasion. I also set up and chair the marketing committee which oversees all marketing activities connected with the club to assist the continued growth. This is in addition to the general work involved in guiding the business that is the football club and which is generally discussed at board meetings once a month.

My firm benefits from being able to talk about its involvement in the local community, the higher profile that is gained from such publicity and generally in the people that I encounter through the club itself. The primary purpose of being involved is to give something back to the community in which we operate.

My reward for being involved is the satisfaction that my work benefits a wide section of the community that is constantly getting bigger, of differing age groups and with different interests.

The work is varied, challenging, time consuming and never supported with enough resource as one would like. And I love every minute of it.