Firms will continue to work remotely when the lockdown eventually ends. This is one of the many finding in the report from DPS Software, ‘How COVID-19 has affected the UK Legal Industry’.
Though many firms are currently working from home due to the pandemic and ensuing lockdown, many foresee this continuing even after the hold of COVID-19 over the UK comes to an end. As working from home has been forced on lawyers as the pandemic took hold, it has proven to be an effective way of working and so, firms envisage this becoming the norm.
The survey also found that small firms have been more significantly affected by the coronavirus than their bigger counterparts. As more people entered self-isolation, the level of business for firms with 1-10 employees hit a slump. The same is true for conveyancing work as house moves were delayed and conveyancing work came to a halt, making conveyancing the worst hit practice area.
The disruption to business levels meant that many firms had to make use of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and also make redundancies. 60% of firms put staff on furlough, while 15% of firms made redundancies, indicating that firms have been seriously impacted by the pandemic.
The full report is available on the DPS Software website here: https://www.dpssoftware.co.uk/blog/how-has-covid-19-affected-the-legal-business/ and discusses all of these issues and more in a lot more detail as well as how we can move forward following the cessation of the lockdown.
