Company and commercial was the practice area hit second hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic, as companies pressed the pause button, and crime suffered the third hardest hit as all but essential criminal cases stopped. The in-depth survey, ‘The impact of COVID-19 on legal businesses’, was carried out among 100 UK law firms by legal technology company dps software, in May (see https://bit.ly/3hU6GNj).
The survey predicts lawyers in certain practice areas may be in demand post-lockdown for unhappy reasons―business turmoil generated by the economic downturn will create work for insolvency and M&A practitioners and employment lawyers will be required to advise on redundancies. Divorce rates could rise due to the stress of lockdown. Criminal practitioners are also likely to see a surge in demand―figures obtained by the Criminal Bar Association showed a backlog of more than 40,000 cases as of 24 May.
