VOLDI Welch is undoubtedly a model solicitor.

He has a highly successful career as a lawyer, but next Thursday he will be strutting his stuff on the catwalk as the very model of a debonair business gent.

Style seems to come easily to this gregarious 41-year-old, who made his catwalk debut last year in the West Yorkshire Forget Me Not Trust’s Huddersfield Town Hall fashion spectacular.

Meet him at the offices of Huddersfield law firm Ramsdens, where he is head of the personal injury team, and he certainly looks the legal business in his discreet, gun-metal grey pinstriped suit with a matching pink tie subtly marked in grey and white.

He’s every inch the man you’d want on your side in a legal wrangle.

But as one of the models from all walks of life in the fashion show last autumn, led by the then Mayor of Kirklees Clr Jean Calvert, he seemed equally at home on the catwalk.

And when he was asked to rejoin the team for this year’s show he said yes in an instant.

Voldi, who lives with his family in Bradley, not far from where he grew up, first came across the Forget Me Not Trust through fundraising efforts at his previous legal firm, Ison Harrison in Leeds.

He said: “One of the secretaries was looking for an appropriate charity to which we could donate the money that we had raised. She came across the trust and because I lived in Huddersfield I was asked to go across and present the cheque.”

When he went to the charity’s headquarters in Lindley staff busy putting together a team of models to show off the latest fashions from across the town couldn’t resist Voldi’s effortless style and personality.

“They didn’t give me much time to think about it. I thought that it would be a laugh and it was for such a good cause,” he said.

But then he had to face a packed Huddersfield Town Hall with no escape from the spotlights!

“It was a bit daunting. I had some friends who came across from Leeds to watch and Tina, who is now my wife, was in the audience.

“I was a bag of nerves. I thought that if I could just see Tina and my friends I would be OK. I saw Tina and blew her a kiss. A bit of a cheer went up and that relaxed me from then on.

“It was just brilliant. I loved it.”

And as Voldi points out this was one of the few opportunities where people are actually encouraged to show off.

As for his own personal style he says he likes to look smart and presentable. “I like to choose my own things. I don’t tend to follow high fashion but rather go with my own tastes.”

He works out regularly and heads for the gym most lunchtimes. “I’ve always tried to keep fit. I’ve trained since I was about 17. I did martial arts for about 10 years and then did weights and running.

“These days it’s more the aerobic stuff, good for the heart things like running. But I play football, usually five or seven-a-side. I try to look after myself.”

Voldi and Tina love music and go dancing when they can. They were fresh from a Stevie Wonder concert when I caught up with Voldi and he couldn’t praise the American soul star enough.

As for the day job he enjoys what he does and has worked hard in the profession he says he got in to almost by accident.

He was educated at Bradley Junior School, then Batley Boys’ Grammar and Greenhead College and began his career not in the legal profession but in the world of insurance claims.

When he switched to a job with a firm of solicitors he found himself looking at motor insurance claims from a different perspective.

Voldi got the opportunity to train as a solicitor as he worked and qualified in 2004. A year later he became a partner in Ison Harrison.

He has been in the legal profession for about 15 years and is now settled working in civil litigation for Ramsdens in Huddersfield.

Voldi is also newly qualified as a barrister and has yet to decide whether he is going to the Bar to enable him to practise as a barrister.

For now he has a happy family life, a fulfilling job and all the fun he needs making occasional outings on the catwalk in aid of a charity that he fully supports.

“When you have children you think ‘if my child was really ill I’d want their last moments to be as comfortable and pleasant as possible’.

“So supporting the Forget Me Not Trust in wanting to build a children’s hospice at Brackenhall is a worthy cause.”

Tickets are £7.50 from the trust’s offices in Lindley on 01484 489789 or from Huddersfield Information Centre on Albion Street. The show begins at 7.30pm.