The Law Society:
Relationship Management Update
Beth Quinn
Relationship Management Executive
We have all been affected in numerous ways by the coronavirus and the restrictions that have been implemented to keep us safe.
Solicitors, and the legal profession overall, are no different. Members across England and Wales face the same challenges as everyone else: from how to keep themselves, their employees and their clients safe; to how to keep their businesses viable; and dealing with the physical and mental impact of the pandemic.
The Law Society of England and Wales has continued to work diligently throughout the last seven months to support our members during the turbulence brought on by the coronavirus crisis.
Across the country, solicitors have continued to work tirelessly for their clients to ensure the highest standard of service throughout the pandemic. This vital work has not been without its challenges, and it is clear that further obstacles will continue to arise for firms and solicitors as we move towards the next stage in response to the virus. The Law Society has produced various resources to assist the profession to be able to tackle this next phase of the pandemic head on.
In September, the UK government announced new Covid-19 restrictions which caused disruptions to those firms that had begun to implement plans to return to their offices. We were able to rebrand our Return, Restart, Recovery (RRR) campaign to meet the need to adapt to the new restrictions, and were able to revise our toolkits and resources to support solicitors and legal businesses to grow and thrive, whilst simultaneously placing firms and the legal sector as an integral part of the wider national recovery effort. Our new RRR campaign focuses on ‘Reset, Resilience and Recovery’.
The reset portion of this campaign encourages all law firms to comply with government guidance. In order to support the government’s request that ‘all firms should allow their staff to work from home if they can’ we have created resources that support members to adapt to operating virtually. These include making remote working permanent, setting up a virtual or dispersed firm or joining an existing virtual firm. The ability of our members to adapt to these new restrictions whilst providing exceptional client service and maintaining productivity is a central part of the ‘resilience’ segment of our campaign.
We have produced a suite of resources to help our members and their businesses to increase their financial and operational resilience. This includes a blueprint for firms and solicitors facing local lockdowns, and guidance on managing during a recession.
Lastly, the ‘recovery’ stage focuses on steps the government can take to help solicitors in revitalising key markets, such as:
› bespoke support for civil and criminal legal aid solicitors;
› changes to the apprenticeship levy to promote job creation and training;
› targeted tax incentives to support employment and stimulate activity in key markets;
› continuing to promote England and Wales internationally as a global legal centre;
› investing in adoption of new technologies in the legal sector;
› ensuring access to justice for all to help ensure our communities emerge from the crisis more resilient and more supported than before.
Though this has been an unprecedented year for all sectors, we are fully aware that some members of the profession are facing difficulties in their careers due to the wider impact of the pandemic. The Law Society has worked hard to develop a robust support package for our members, and particularly those individuals who are going through the redundancy process or facing uncertainty due to the end of the government’s furlough scheme.
This support includes a free careers clinic where members can get a one-to-one consultation with an expert career coach or legal recruiter. Amongst other areas, sessions focus on ‘applying for interview’ practice, advice when changing career direction and on returning to law following a career break. The next clinics will be on 15 October, 10 November and 8 December and appointments last 45 minutes via video conference. These slots are available to all, however, solicitors going through the redundancy process shall get a prioritised slot. Places can be booked by emailing careers@lawsociety.org.uk with your preferred date and time.
Practitioners have been using lockdown and furlough leave to further their career and education. To support this, we have provided a series of topical webinars, podcasts and articles on our new learning and development portal. Articles include: career options for solicitors; changing career direction; help to progress your career; advice about changing roles and guidance on how to work differently. Again, we are keen to provide additional support to those going through redundancy, and free access to our courses and further resources can be made available by emailing the careers email address above.
At the onset of the pandemic, we focused on our members’ ability to ensure client services could continue to be delivered. This involved the use of electronic signatures and the virtual execution of documents that enabled deals to be closed and businesses to keep moving. We also shared protocols on virtual statutory declarations, and practice notes on electronic signatures and the execution of documents by virtual means.
As we move forward, it is clear that lawtech will play a vital role in driving the post-coronavirus recovery across all sectors of the economy, including legal services. Our new lawtech resources include: a cybersecurity and fraud prevention hub; lawtech contract negotiations; practice notes on lawtech and on scams, and much more. We hold regular sessions that provide an introduction to lawtech and offer bespoke sessions on legal technology and GDPR. To register interest please contact our Policy Adviser, Andrew McWhir at Andrew.mcwhir@lawsociety.org.uk
The above offers a brief snapshot of the ongoing work of the Society, and we remain vigilant and committed to meeting the needs of our members throughout the pandemic. We shall continue to monitor the coronavirus crisis and what this means for our members and their businesses.
Our latest updates, guidance and support is readily available on our website, and we encourage our members to follow us on Twitter on @TheLawSociety and @LSLondonandSE and on LinkedIn for the latest updates in real-time.
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