Here’s the introduction to this Law Gazette piece which, as always, is great reporting on what’s happening currently in the UK legal sector.
How the legal profession is coping with Covid-19
Peter Taylor, Paris Smith LLP, Southampton
‘In my 35 years of being a lawyer I have never known anything like this before.
For me the virus has a much deeper threat than for most. I am in the extremely vulnerable category for coronavirus, having undergone a kidney transplant 16 years ago. For the next 12 weeks I need to be shielded and at home away from family and friends. My boundaries are to be the house and garden. Making the decision to self isolate was an emotional moment and my family decided to restrict even contact between family members and myself. I feel extremely fortunate to have technology to maintain isolated contact. I am lucky to have my wife and younger daughter both committed to self-isolation.
The working week started with me delivering a message to the 250 members of the firm to ensure that they still felt part of team Paris Smith despite working remotely. I started my message:
“We are now starting a week in which Paris Smith is working from more locations than ever before in its history. Wherever you are sitting or standing reading this email is one of those many locations. Whilst we are physically separated, we are still very much connected as one. Technology plays its huge part in that – phones, laptops and tablets; apps, telephone conferencing and video messaging as well. Equally important and indeed more so, we must remember that we all share the Paris Smith bond with its own sense of purpose, vision and values. These have stood us in good stead for over 200 years and will continue to do so.”
I have been mindful throughout the week that communication internally and externally is so important at times such as this. For the staff in the firm it is essential to avoid any vacuums of communication when the chimp in the brain can run amuck. I am committed to the wellbeing, both physical and mental of the staff and to ensure that they do not feel alone. After the prime minister’s announcement of a lock down on the evening of 24 March, I immediately emailed the firm to inform them that I was calling a meeting of our Cobra committee to discuss the implications of that for the firm. We decided that clarity was needed on the ‘absolute necessity’ of travel to work so we planned our action for the following day and communicated that to the firm that night as I promised the firm to do. The following day the picture became clearer and we agreed our longer term arrangements as to how to minimise the need for any members of the firm to visit the office and fulfil our duty to follow the government’s instructions.
Read more from otther lawyers around the UK……