The Law Society has published guidance which you can access here: https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/news/stories/update-on-legal-practitioner-keyworkers/

In Summary: if you practice in Litigation, Criminal Law or Private Client (wills and perhaps LPAs) you are a Key Worker.

Here is a link to the link on the government website where you may check if you are allowed to have a Coronavirus test: https://self-referral.test-for-coronavirus.service.gov.uk/eligibility

If you are registering as an employer, the Law Society suggests you indicate that you have essential staff as your employees are working with the MoJ to support the delivery of the justice system.

A useful very simple guide to running a Client Account in a Law Firm issued by the Law Society. Here's the link - which itself has some helpful links.

https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/support-services/advice/articles/client-funds/

Find here a link to the Law Society's guidance issued 9th April 2020 on renewing your PII (Professinal Indemnity Insurance), with a view particularly to the Covid-19 crisis. https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/support-services/advice/articles/coronavirus-covid-19-renewing-your-firms-pii/

The Law Society Gazette gives a useful digest of nthe situation in this article: https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/sra-offers-little-leeway-for-firms-struggling-to-renew-pii/5103824.article#.XpirSen23Z4.linkedin

I think we are at risk of making this situation economically worse for ourselves than it already is. I’m talking about lack of confidence. I thought this during the 2008 crash. The news channels will focus on the negative, the sensational, the catastrophic – it makes them seem more important, they used to say ‘it sells newspapers’, although in this digital age they’re becoming less relevant now. No-one seems that interested in putting things into context, to report good news stories. So, we spiral into gloom and despondency. That is NOT going to help keep our economy going. It’s not going to generate income and jobs for people. It’s not going to give one the right attitude to successfully adapt to the changed situation.

We, as a nation, indeed as a planet, have a choice: do we sit at home and worry about how bad things are and hope that they will get better – or – do we say to ourselves ‘OK, this is really bad, I’m going to get up off the ground, dust myself down and then put all my effort into adapting my business to cope with this’?

I would say it is in your own self-interest to do the latter. Indeed, I would go further that it is our duty to our colleagues, our clients, our neighbours, our town, our country to do so. If everyone chooses to do this, chooses to find a way to trade, then the damage to our economy is likely to be much less and we will much better prepared for the ‘new norm’ afterwards (whenever afterwards starts).

I wrote ‘choice’, because our attitude to stuff that happens is about the only thing about which we ultimately have a choice. You might be a natural pessimist, but you can choose to adopt a ‘can-do’ attitude. If you are a Brit reading this, you can draw on national references like the ‘Blitz or Dunkirk spirit’. If you are from another country, there will be references from your culture from which you can draw for inspiration.

In this crisis, we have many more tools to help us trade that were not there in past crises or would not have been there if the Coronavirus crisis had hit say 20 years ago. In 2008 the challenge was lack of liquidity. We have liquidity in the banks now. The challenge that we face is social distancing. But we have technology that allows us still to see and talk with each other. We have electronic banking. We have digital signatures. We have search engines to enable people to find people, businesses to find businesses. I know that some areas are very badly affected by the shutdown. In the UK the vast majority of our economy is in the services sector. A large proportion of that can still trade. The government is providing 80% of income for furloughed staff. As they won’t now be spending on travel, so they may well be in a cash neutral position. So, these people are cushioned and have income to spend. Indeed, if they do spend some income, they will be helping the economy keep turning, thus making it more likely that jobs can be retained.

I was shocked to read a post from a senior partner of a law firm in which he wrote that he was using his enforced resting time organising the screws in his shed! Sorry – in my view he should be using his time to speak to people, research and wrack his brains for ways to maximise opportunities for his business to adapt it to the current circumstances.

So, this is a call to arms! Business people, employees, workers, families – we are all in this together. Let’s find ways to do business. Call people up. Zoom them. People buy from people. Be inventive. Do things differently. People will be more open to working differently than they were before. I spoke with the owner of one of our client law firms this week. She said to me: “Ingemar, if you’d talked to me about working paperlessly before this crisis, I would have closed you down. Now, all my arguments are blown out of the water. What use is a paper file in the office to me now?”. There are restaurants doing home deliveries, businesses altering what they make to what’s in demand: PPE, hand sanitiser. Adapt and survive.

Let’s Do Business

One for Litigators: Dispute Resolution, Family, PI, Immigration (JR), Civil Lit - anyone who creates Trial Bundles and Trial Bundle Indexes. We are always looking out for ideas and software that might help our clients.

From experience, I know what a pain they are to create. You spend hours on this. Then at trial 1 page is wrong or missing and the judge shreds your costs for the trial bundle. To add insult to injury - it's not really legal work. It's got more to do with being a publisher!

We've come across some great software that allows you to create them very easily, a lot of it by drag and drop. You decide the section structure and pagination style. There's a one-off charge of £45, but you can then go back to the bundle and change it at no extra expense. The time saving for you is massive. The charge could even be made a disbursement should you want.  When it's finished you click a button and it creates your Index! All soft copy - so someone else can print it out at their expense. With over 50 courts now stating that they will accept soft copy Trial Bundles, we expect that this method will become the norm. It will certainly save masses of time and cost. As our clients will know, we're always looking out for things that will help them: improve profit and manage risk.

If interested give us a shout and we can introduce you so you may make your own assessment. 07887 524507 or [email protected]

To furlough or not to furlough - that is the question! I am not an economist of an accountant but like many business owners I am having to grapple with extraordinary decisions at this time. I'll share my thoughts if you join in and share yours in the comments!

Like many small business owners, I take a small income and then take dividends when net income and other business needs allow. There is no specific assistance for this sector of the business community from the government. One could argue that this is the most dynamic sector of our economy – from which the giants of the future will grow. One is faced with the stark options: plough on or put this business in hibernation - which would allow the directors to carry out their statutory duties only and their staff to receive 80% of their salary from the government.

Here is a link to the government’s ‘Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme’: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme So the terminology I’ve used is not quite correct, but it seems to be what’s out there. In fact the government is trying to stop businesses from putting staff onto furlough (unpaid leave), but rather to keep them on as employees, receiving 80% of their pay from the government under this scheme. However, if you are to benefit from the scheme the employee cannot work: ‘To be eligible for the subsidy, when on furlough, an employee can not undertake work for or on behalf of the organisation. This includes providing services or generating revenue.’

The trouble with the 2nd option is that you still carry certain business overheads but now have decided against generating any income. Staff may be able to survive, but the owners (who take all the risk) will receive 80% of their small salary, so even from a personal viewpoint the maths does not add up, let alone from a business standpoint. Another issue to bear in mind is that your customers may still be out there wanting you to do things and willing to pay. For lawyers, areas that will continue or even increase are: employment law advice, family law advice, wills, estate planning, LPAs, probate, litigation, personal injury and other claims, insolvency and bankruptcy, business rescue and restructuring, commercial law, corporate law. I am not comfortable ethically or commercially with the idea of putting a firm in mothballs ‘until this is all over’ as some have talked about. How long will that be? Initially people thought 3-4 weeks. Then 3 months. Now the Chief Medical Office is talking about 6 months or more. During that time your competitors are taking tough decisions to adapt to the new environment. I’ve had consulting sessions (remote of course) with a number of law firms to work through their plans and look at ways to adapt their ways of working and look at new strategies to enable them to survive and indeed come out of this stronger and more profitable. In little over a week I’ve learned of 4 of our client firms who are actually expanding. No surprise that they are all operating on cloud-based case management systems. Although this current crisis has been inconvenient – they already have the machinery in place to work remotely as one unified team and so can concentrate on hunting clients – perhaps the clients of those firms who have gone into furlough… For those not yet on a cloud-based system I would suggest the time to act is now.

The alternative to hibernation is to adapt and survive. Isn’t that what nature and business and people have always done when there is change? The world has changed. It will not go back to how it was. There is a ‘New Norm’ for the next 3-6 or more months. There will be a ‘New Norm’ when we eventually come out of this. I am sure it will have accelerated trends that were already happening: more flexible and remote working, giving clients access to advisers through remote means such as audio and video conferencing, signing documents digitally, work acquisition through remote means (even if they are your own existing clients they will contact you remotely rather than physically face to face), remote team meetings and collaborative working through TEAMs, zoom and other software platforms – and an increased movement to working on cloud-based systems.

Do you find option 2 the option more appealing? If so, feel free to contact me to talk through your plans. In your deliberations, please take advice from your accountant.

I’d welcome anyone else’s thoughts. We’re all trying to work this one out and only hindsight will tell what was the right course.

A protocol has just been released agreed between 11 insurers and 11 law firms to try to prevent game playing around deadlines, limitation dates etc during the Coronavirus crisis. Here is a link to the report in Litigation Futures: https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/litigation-dispute-resolution

Organisations can pledge their commitment to the protocol and see who has signed up on the ABI’s website.

In these times where we are supposed to be working remotely – how to you get documents signed? If you are used to posting documents out for signature – should you be making your clients walk/drive out to the post box?

Even without the coronavirus there was a strong argument for using digital signatures to make life easier for your clients, to speed up the process, improve conversion rates, improve efficiency and profitability. Now, the alternative is almost as bleak as: not being able to convert work or bring it to a conclusion = no income!

Last autumn the Law Commission concluded that there was no legal barrier to digital signatures being good signatures in law. Earlier in March this year the Law chancellor confirmed this – even for wills and deeds. https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/law/electronically-signed-deeds-are-legal-lord-chancellor-confirms/5103306.article

In October 2019 the Law Society issued guidance for digital signatures: https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/support-services/advice/articles/signing-and-exchanging-documents/

The Legal Aid Authority has, amongst other guidance for coping with the coronavirus crisis, stated that it will accept digital signatures in place of wet signatures: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-legal-aid-agency-contingency-response#history

Several categories of particular importance come to mind:

1. Client Care Letters, CFAs, Retainers and other internal documents you need clients to sign – whilst in some circumstances you can operate on terms of trading, in others it is not possible, or you may not want to run the risk.
2. Wills & LPAs – sadly this is likely to be a growth area for the next few months. People will be faced with their own mortality. You can’t go out to visit people to take instructions and get them to sign – especially the elderly – for risk of infecting them. However, it may be urgent for them to get these documents completed (and you might need the money as other revenue streams may be constrained!). You will need to be careful about checking capacity and understanding. You will need to consider insuring against heightened risk, getting indemnities from the beneficiaries etc. However, a solution has to be found. Witnessing the signatures is also an issue.
3. Property – this is an area where I fear there will be a significant slow-down. We do not want any other problems adding to that. The Lord Chancellor has stated that a digital signature is a good legal signature, even for a deed. However, deeds for the transfer of land will not be registrable until the Land Registry issues a notice saying they will accept them. Over to the Land Registry to sort this out ASAP please. There is a potential issue over fraud. They need to square this circle quickly and find a solution.

Other areas are affected, but these spring to mind with particular urgency.

We believe that we have come across a solution which easily allows you to arrange for the electronic signature and does not require you to first of all buy a case management system. It also claims to have a solution for the witnessing of signatures. Contact us if you would like to learn more.

These are challenging times. As business leaders we have a duty to the safety of our families and the community - and also to maintain our business so there is work and income for them. Do not panic. We are all going through the change curve at the moment:

If you want to survive and indeed grow you will need to adapt. That starts with thinking positively. How can you adapt? Where are the opportunities. There is a massive change going on - that will create opportunities. Perhaps things you've thought about but not done... I've been talking to clients on how they can adapt - working through strategies for managing staff and indeed harnessing their potential to help. The same goes for your clients. Contact me if you would like to book in a session. LEAP users - I know there are several things you can use your system for to help. Others - lets explore.

It certainly will have an effect but what it will be no-one knows. Here are my thoughts for what they’re worth. I’d welcome other people’s opinions. This is obviously a fluid situation.

By Practice Area

Conveyancing – likely to take a hit – is moving house unnecessary travel? I wouldn’t be surprised if this will be a bit like the financial crisis in 2007, although, hopefully shorter.

Civil Litigation – courts likely to shut, already hearing on in-person hearings being adjourned. If they do, then cases will gum up in the system, as will cashflow from concluded cases – unless they settle out of court.

Mediation & other forms of ADR – face to face will stop – on-line will increase, especially as the courts will not be operating or be slower.

Criminal – crims are likely to keep ‘working’ – but courts likely to slow down - Jury trails are to stop from April onwards, don’t know if will affect cashflow. Not sure how much social distancing can be done in a police cell. Let’s hope the LAA will continue to process your payment claims with their normal speed and accuracy!

Family – likely to slow for now and then be very busy once we are allowed to move about again.

Immigration – likely to move on-line. Those firms that rely on face-to-face work are likely to suffer more

Commercial Property – pretty much the same as for domestic conveyancing.

Employment – likely to be very busy for employment lawyers – with people being made redundant or changed working arrangements.

Commercial – likely to be a spike as companies seek assistance with their documents, but then falling away as commercial activity is subdued.

Insolvency – likely to increase but be impacted by the inability to shift the main asset if that is a building.

Corporate – likely to be a lot to start off with as businesses seek assistance, and then some ongoing as those which are in better shape see opportunities

Private Client – likely to see a significant increase at all levels, although completion of probate might be held back by the slow down of the property market.

Suggested Immediate Action

1. Try as best as you can to identify the impact on the likely model of what you think might happen. Identify the cases likely to be stuck and the areas that are likely to slow down or get busy. Put in place plans A, B & C. Analyse the likely impact on cashflow (It’s lack of cash that kills most businesses). We can help to provide additional resource – is needed. Please contact us.
2. Look to how you will get new work in these changed times. Those relying on digital means are best equipped – although competition is likely to intensify. If you are relying on footfall etc then look at other methods. Again, we may be able to help. Please contact us.
3. Move as much as you can on-line. By now most firms will have put in place home working. This may be a sysmic shift in our working patters. I suspect that after this is over a lot of businesses will continue with a lot more homeworking than was the case before. Look to move onto the cloud – there are case management systems out there that are on true cloud. Video conferencing and conference calling are now available as options. Electronic signing of documents by parties has recently been approved by the Lord Chancellor as good signature – even for deeds. If you would like assistance with any of this we can help, either suggesting technological solutions or specialist support.