Activity

“Our clients have sought our advice and assistance on a wide range of Covid-related topics over the past year, particularly in the immediate aftermath of the first lockdown. Issues on which our advice was sought included refinancing and restructuring, Covid-related employment advice, holding AGMs virtually, cybersecurity and compliance with public health measures.”

Remote Working

“I think that most people in the firm are coping well. One year in, there is no doubt that people are finding aspects of working from home for this length of time challenging. We all miss the collegiality and social aspects of being in the office with colleagues, as well as the collaboration and innovation that cannot happen as easily in a remote environment.  

“I have been very focused on internal communication and keeping everyone as up to date as possible on developments at the firm and our response to the pandemic. Team leaders across the firm have been having more frequent team meetings than before Covid. We are also encouraging everyone to keep in touch on more informal bases. We held a number of social events on Zoom for a while after the pandemic hit. Zoom fatigue is a real issue now though, and people’s appetite for social Zoom calls is waning. 

“I don’t believe that remote working has affected service delivery. Our teams continue to provide excellent advice and service to our clients. One thing that is more challenging when working remotely is providing ongoing on-the-job training to our trainee solicitors and more junior members of staff. We have developed buddy systems and other innovative ways to maintain our traditionally high levels of training while working remotely.”

Litigation

“Thankfully, many courts have gone online and are conducting fully remote or hybrid hearings. Hearings involving witnesses are more challenging but are also happening. We were involved in the first ever fully remote witness hearing in the Commercial Division of the High Court in January this year.”

Outlook

“Other than the locked-down sectors, most other sectors are holding up well, including, for example, financial services, energy and manufacturing.”

Download Geoff’s interview here.