One Week With John Gulliver - Solicitors on high notes for charity

Pubished: 6 May, 2010

TEARS, love and lilting romantic music – you don’t normally associate them with the dry, dusty interiors of a solicitor’s office.
But I admit Hodge, Jones and Allen, in Euston, are different.
For the sounds of La Bohème will soon ring through the elegant atrium of their offices in North Gower Street when Puccini’s opera is performed to raise money for a Spinal Cord Injury charity.
I gather the idea sprang from a conversation between a member of the staff and her fiancé, who performs for the opera group OperaUpClose, which has recently brought off a sell-out run at the Cock Tavern Theatre.
With a cast of eight, accompanied by a pianist, it promises to be an unforgettable evening on May 20, with tickets at £20.
Fundraising for charity dominates the firm at the end of May with a Golf Day at Hoebridge, Old Woking, hosted by ex-England rugby player Ian Hunter and an art exhibition featuring Mouth and Foot painter Keith Jansz.
Money has already come in from Waleke Munthall, a staff member, who raised £1,500 running in the London Marathon.