Careers
Fiona Fitzgerald, Chief Executive of Radcliffe Chambers, discusses the impact of the pandemic I
remember the 2008 financial crisis only too well. I was a partner in a law firm where a good proportion of work was property-related. We did what every sensible business did: hold onto our cash, chased hard for outstanding debts and reduced our overheads. Unfortunately, on that occasion, reducing overheads also involved making some very difficult decisions and reducing staff. Forward to twelve years later and Covid-19. We were lucky in that we were relatively well-prepared. In 2019, law firm leaders and directors of barristers’ chambers were primarily worried about information security, so I had decided to bring in an external consultant to look at all our IT. We worked out a plan of action which included moving all staff and members over to Office 365 which, of course, included Microsoft Teams. We were also due to test our disaster recovery plan in December 2019. We used the scenario of a building collapsing in Lincoln’s Inn and worked our way through the actions we would take. We found a couple of areas of weakness and so spent January 2020 ensuring we were as ready as we could be for some faceless disaster to hit. Little did we know that it wouldn’t involve 19th century buildings, but a disease without a vaccine or a cure. It was a much more far-reaching and devastating situation. In that fateful week in March, we pushed to get staff and members working from home as most other legal services providers did. Luckily, our new IT system was such that everyone, but our most junior clerks could work from home. At this point, we did not have Teams up and running on all computers, but we managed to do so within the week. Indeed, chambers held its first remote AGM via Teams just a week after lockdown. My initial focus was on modelling worst case and mid case financial scenarios, making sure everyone was safe, well and able to work, and ensuring that our external and internal communications were as clear and supportive as possible. I spent time with both clients and members reassuring them we could continue to work seamlessly, despite the unprecedented challenges. Those first few months of lockdown were extremely hard work, but my team and I were determined that something positive should come out of the situation. Disruption leads to opportunities and we wanted to make sure that we came out of the crisis stronger than before. We finished a lot of projects that had been on our to do list, including building a new intranet, improving team communications, overhauling our social media and video marketing strategies and launching a YouTube channel. We adapted much more quickly than we would normally, and other professional services firms adapted alongside us. Clients were asking us to collaborate on innovative routes to market, and new services and products. In many of our practice areas we actually grew our business. So, there was lots of opportunity. From the very beginning, I knew my team would rise to the challenge, but I was still amazed by the way they just got on with things. Everyone pulled together. The hours were long and I was certainly in danger of being in my study from the moment I rose
to last thing at night. I quickly realised I needed to have some sort of work/life balance. An early morning walk helped, as well as taking proper time out for meals. It became obvious early on that those with caring responsibilities did not have it so easy. In the first two weeks I took the time to speak to every member of chambers and every staff member. Home-schooling was difficult and trying to balance childcare with work was a real struggle for some, especially those with young children. A couple of our members had to take a month or two off from taking new work and slogged through early mornings and late nights to complete their work when children were in bed. Our very junior juniors were also affected by working from home. For them, chambers is a learning environment. One of our senior silks said to me the other day that during lockdown he had not received one email or call from a junior barrister asking for advice on a case. Prior to lockdown he would have at least three or four conversations a week. Our juniors had to adapt quickly to get into a routine and figure out where they could add value. Towards the beginning of their careers, many barristers are used to being in court most days, travelling all over the country; that country court work stopped almost immediately and is only now restarting. Many of the county courts were in full lockdown and trying to figure out how they were going to keep our justice system going. Luckily in our areas of work the Commercial Courts and the Rolls building continued to function relatively well. We are now in a hybrid situation with a good proportion of barristers and staff back in chambers, some full-time and some part-time. While full home-working has been successful some of the issues we are still grappling with are the future of working remotely, communicating with our clients, winning new clients, ensuring that none of our people feel isolated and making sure that those of us who are learning have full opportunities to learn. To overcome these barriers, we are working on expanding our mentoring and buddy systems, talking to our clients about their issues and continuing to be extensions of their teams just in a different way. ■ Fiona Fitzgerald is Chief Executive of Radcliffe Chambers a barristers’ chambers based in Lincoln’s Inn specialising in private client, property, insolvency, commercial, pensions, banking and finance and professional negligence.
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