6 minute read
Questions - Linda Lee
Questions for Northamptonshire Law Society Bulletin Autumn 2020 – COVID Edition
From Linda Lee
1. Please provide a brief description of you, your organisation, number of employees and areas of work.
I hold a number of roles, I am a Commissioner, deputy Chair of the Body Corporate and a board member at the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the public body responsible for investigating alleged miscarriages of criminal justice in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The CCRC has around 95 staff, 11 Commissioners and 3 non-executive directors.
I am also a Consultant specialising in regulation at Radcliffes LeBrasseur, a 42-partner firm. We have around 150 people in total working in offices in London, Cardiff and Leeds. Radcliffes offers a full service to commercial and private clients and also has specialist teams in Healthcare and Regulation. I also sit as a legally qualified chair for a number of regulators.
I hold a number of voluntary roles, I am the Law Society Council member for Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland. I was President of the Law Society of England and Wales, 2010 to 2011 and I have chaired a number of Boards and Committees at the Law Society. I chaired the Regulatory Processes Committee until 31 August and I chair the newly formed Mergers and Closures Taskforce. I am also a member of the Access to Justice Committee.
I also Chair the Solicitors Assistance Scheme (SAS), which has no paid staff, only volunteers. We provide free initial advice to solicitors and to their staff and families, on a range of topics including regulation, disciplinary action and employment law.
2. When did you first become aware of
Coronavirus and what were your initial thoughts?
Like many others when I heard of it at the beginning of the year, I took an interest, but I had no idea that it would plunge the whole world into crisis. 3. What steps did you/your firm initially take and what problems did you encounter?
All of the organisations I am involved with took similar steps. Working from home became the norm but, in some cases, this was simply not possible. Many disciplinary hearings were cancelled. Some were thought suitable to hold online but in situations where the credibility of a Respondent had to be assessed, Respondents were reluctant to be subjected to a remote hearing.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal which adjudicates on complaints made against doctors and makes decisions about a doctor’s fitness to practise, returned to live hearings in August. A risk assessment was carried out to enable this to progress, fewer hearings could be held and the rather collegiate atmosphere of lunchtimes was impacted with fewer tables spread more widely apart, and our packed lunch handed to us in a paper bag! I heard my first case under the new rules in September and we did not wear masks in the hearing. As Manchester and the North West has become a high-risk area, the hearings are continuing but now everyone must wear masks.
At the CCRC, we were concerned that we ensured that the staff’s mental health was protected, as some of the work can be very distressing in nature and we looked at a variety of ways in which we could keep people connected and supported including team meetings and mentoring.
At the SAS, we immediately moved to remote meetings. Our volunteer administrative assistant, a trainee solicitor was put on furlough. Fortunately, the SBA, the Solicitor’s charity came to our aid and our trainee was able to volunteer for the Solicitor’s charity and to continue to assist us. We also started running a series of online courses targeted at different sectors of the profession, for example junior lawyers and sole practitioners, to explain the help available. At the Law Society, Chancery Lane was closed, and we moved to remote meetings. The AGM did not take place in July as usual, but instead was held remotely in October. In response partly to COVID-19 but partly due to the hardening Professional Indemnity market, we formed a closures and mergers taskforce to ensure we had all the necessary help and guidance for the profession and that it was up to date. It was anticipated that a higher than average number of firms would have closed this year in any event but whilst there will be some winners in this situation, there will inevitably be losers as a result of the pandemic. We owe it to our members to ensure that there is as much help as possible in this very difficult time. 4. Now we are slowly coming out of lockdown, how are you tackling this, what are your plans?
At the time of writing, we are nearing the second peak of the pandemic and it does not seem likely that we will be returning to normality any time soon. Early hopes of a vaccine for the autumn have been thwarted due to significant side effects being discovered in trials of some of the early, most promising vaccines. It seems unlikely that a vaccine will be available until late spring/early summer 2021 and even this may not be achievable. It seems working at home is the new normal. Additional support will be required for staff well-being in all the organisations I am connected to.
5. Have you seen different sectors of Law, more affected than others, if so which eg. Conveyancing
Although the impact on conveyancing is obvious, I fear there will be long term effects on litigation and hearings of all types as the backlog continues to grow. Justice delayed is justice denied.
6. Have you seen any positives for you, your firm or more widely the legal sector come out of the pandemic?
Making best use of new technology
and finding out just how adaptable we all can be is a definite positive. For me personally, the reduction in travelling has been a benefit as I tended to work away and spend up to 6 hours a day commuting. I don’t miss hotel food!
7. How do you see the future for you, your firm and the wider profession?
I am concerned at the future for all firms, big or small. We are not well supported by government, our exclusion from small business rate relief indicated this, as did the unreasonable demands put on criminal legal aid lawyers at the start of the pandemic.
8. Any top tips?
Make as much use of the help that is out there as possible and look after your and your staff’s mental and physical health. It could be a very long winter.
9. Any other thoughts you would like to share?
I hope that as a profession, we can all work together. If firms do fold, I hope that we can all look to see what we can do to help those who lose their jobs, particularly trainees who will need to find another firm to take over their training contract so that they can qualify.
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