header-logo header-logo

03 December 2020 / Richard Crook
Issue: 7913 / Categories: Features , Profession , Covid-19
printer mail-detail

Leaving ‘business as usual’ behind

33616
Richard Crook explains why lawyers need to become multi-hyphenates in the COVID world
  • The unprecedented demands of the COVID era mean that legal advisers need to adapt to wearing more than one hat to provide clients with the support they need.
  • The benefits of these new ways of working include far closer and more personal lawyer-client relationships.

Pre-COVID, we had the luxury of being able to meet people and network, or search the internet for answers to far-reaching questions, or to find inspiration for problem-solving. However, this changed in late March 2020 when the pandemic took hold: what happened next was of course a ‘first’ for the majority of people. We lacked precedents and answers to an array of matters, but the pressure was on to continue delivering work, against a backdrop of economic decline across a number of sectors. Businesses went into survival mode and business development professionals, and the fee-earners with whom they worked, realised what it truly meant to live in an online-first world. The relationship between

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Thackray Williams—Lucy Zhu

Thackray Williams—Lucy Zhu

Dual-qualified partner joins as head of commercial property department

Morgan Lewis—David A. McManus

Morgan Lewis—David A. McManus

Firm announces appointment of next chair

Burges Salmon—Rebecca Wilsker

Burges Salmon—Rebecca Wilsker

Director joins corporate team from the US

NEWS
What safeguards apply when trust corporations are appointed as deputy by the Court of Protection? 
Disputing parties are expected to take part in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), where this is suitable for their case. At what point, however, does refusing to participate cross the threshold of ‘unreasonable’ and attract adverse costs consequences?
When it comes to free legal advice, demand massively outweighs supply. 'Millions of people are excluded from access to justice as they don’t have anywhere to turn for free advice—or don’t know that they can ask for help,' Bhavini Bhatt, development director at the Access to Justice Foundation, writes in this week's NLJ
When an ex-couple is deciding who gets what in the divorce or civil partnership dissolution, when is it appropriate for a third party to intervene? David Burrows, NLJ columnist and solicitor advocate, considers this thorny issue in this week’s NLJ
NLJ's latest Charities Appeals Supplement has been published in this week’s issue
back-to-top-scroll