Birmingham Law Society has unveiled its new president.
John Hughes, who is a banking lawyer and a consultant at Shakespeare Martineau, is the society's 121st president and succeeds Mushtaq Khan.
A Liverpudlian by birth, Mr Hughes has been practising as a solicitor in Birmingham for more than 20 years.
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He was a partner at DLA for four years in the 1990s, a senior partner at Needham & James and also worked in-house for First National Commercial Bank and the former Midland Bank.
Mr Hughes has also authored 'Law of Property Act Receivership', is a council member of the Non Administrative Receivers Association and a member of the both the Society of Expert Witnesses and the Notaries Society.
During his year in office, he has pledged to carry on the initiatives started by Mr Khan, including developing closer ties with other professional bodies within Birmingham and the West Midlands.
He said he was also keen to engage with both local and national politicians and aims to extend membership of the body to other law societies in the region.
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Mr Hughes said: "It is a great honour to be able to represent a great profession in a great city. I am very much looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead.
"The environment in which the profession is operating is changing rapidly and we must ensure that we, as a profession, adapt accordingly but at the same time maintain the high standards of service and integrity which our clients rightly expect of us."
Taking over the role of vice-president is Andrew Beedham, of Clarke Willmott, while James Turner, of Tuckers Solicitors, becomes deputy vice-president.
New honorary secretaries are Inez Brown, partner at Harrison Clark Rickerbys and Chaitali Desai, a solicitor with Weightmans.
They replace Professor Bernardette Griffin, from The University of Law Birmingham, and Ann Houghton, of Anthony Collins.