Covid-19 crisis management: what law firms should be doing for themselves and their clients

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Tahera Mandviwala
TDT Legal, Mumbai 
tahera.mandviwala@tdtlegal.co

Chair

Tahera Mandviwala 
TDT Legal, Mumbai, Website and Communications Officer, Law Firm Management Committee

Moderators

Hanim Hamzah
Zico Law, Singapore, Senior Vice-Chair, Law Firm Management Committee

Stephen Revell
Freshfields, Hong Kong, Secretary-Treasurer, Law Firm Management Committee

Speakers

Hwa Soo Chung
Kim and Chang, Seoul

Maria-Pia Hope
Vinge, Stockholm

Shannon Selden
Debevoise & Plimpton, New York

Rosario Zaccà
Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli & Partners, Milan

Tahera Mandviwala, the Chair, introduced the webinar as being a timely effort to share experiences and thoughts on how law firms can best tackle the sudden Covid-19 crisis. She explained that the webinar would be divided into two segments: the first, dealing with the internal aspects of Covid-19 crisis management for law firms; and the second, dealing with the external aspects, including assisting clients.

Stephen Revell moderated the first part of the webinar. Various matters relating to internal crisis management were discussed, including issues relating to agile working, travel restrictions, interaction and communication with clients, change of strategy, use of technology and business development and maintaining visibility.

Hanim Hamzah moderated the second part of the webinar. While discussing the external aspects of crisis management for law firms, key issues were discussed, including the working of courts and litigation practice, dealing with and assisting clients on virus-driven matters such as employment, force majeure, stock exchange disclosures and handling AGMs, remote meetings with clients, setting up special Covid-19 teams and proactively interacting with clients.

Hwa Soo, who is part of Kim & Chang’s Covid-19 crisis management and response team, shared her experiences from South Korea. The firm has put social distancing measures in place. Professional staff are encouraged to work from home, while a staggered shift system has been introduced for non-professional staff. The firm has also set up a Covid-19 task force made up of senior partners and health and workplace safety lawyers. Taking social distancing seriously, most client and internal meetings are remote and the firm is taking a long-term view for clients. As there is a surge of requests from clients on coronavirus issues, extensive information and advice is being provided through newsletters and selected advice is being provided pro bono.  

Maria-Pia Hope is the Managing Partner of Vinge and she shared her experiences in dealing with a case of Covid-19 within her firm. They had to close that office and their staff has been working from home since then. To keep everyone informed and connected, they have weekly virtual staff meetings. These are not strictly work-related and sometimes include contests, such as cutest pet, to keep things a little light and keep everyone’s morale up.

The firm also realises that there is a need to have clear thinking around data security. They continue to investigate the impact of the General Data Protection Regulation on working from home. Their situation also made them realise that they had to take the crisis seriously and develop a business continuity protocol. They are now monitoring the situation very closely and are thinking not only about how the firm’s current technology can support working from home but also how its budget and staffing requirements for the long term would have to change. Client work is still flowing in; enquiries by clients include concerns relating to the changing macro-environment due to the pandemic.

Shannon Selden is part of Debevoise & Plimpton’s Covid-19 crisis management and response team and she joined the webinar from New York. Globally, their staff (except in the Hong Kong office) have been working from home since 15 March. They only have a few staff members working in the office to ensure that servers and systems are running smoothly.

The firm’s technology has been enhanced to enable staff to work from home productively. All 150 partners worldwide stay in touch through phone calls and videoconferencing to ensure that the partnership is on top of the situation and to discuss the firm’s overall approach. The firm has created an online central repository for sharing information with clients as the situation continues to unfold and they have sent out targeted emails to particular clients on specific issues. They have also ensured that clients are briefed on continuation of services, particularly for litigation matters. They have seen many new matters and questions coming in for capital markets and M&A (especially enquiries around whether deals are going to be closed or changed due to the crisis).

Rosario Zaccà, Joint Managing Partner of Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli & Partners, joined us from Italy, one of the hardest-hit jurisdictions. They have also made efforts to properly communicate with their staff and clients to ensure everyone knows that the firm is there for them. They have invested in technology to ensure that their staff can work from home productively. They have also, through newsletters and the like, been keeping their clients abreast of developments as the government announces new measures. Current client queries in Italy mostly relate to employment, contracts, supply chain and manufacturing issues that are affected by the lockdown.

While concluding, all four panellists emphasised the importance of constant and effective communication with clients and staff.  

The audience was very interactive and raised several queries that were addressed by the panel.

The Law Firm Management Committee will continue to make best efforts to help and guide its members through these unprecedented times. Do keep an eye on the Law Firm Management Committee website for news, updates and events relating to Covid-19.

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