Norfolk Law 48 (Spring2022)

Norfolk Law Magazine of the Norfolk & Norwich Law Society - www.nnls.org - Spring 2022

Countdown is calling!

2022 sees the return of Lawyers Do Countdown, the annual Legal Walk in May and a full programme of CPD. Inside, our usual mix of articles and comment, plus profiles of our 2021 Excellence Award winners.

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This issue... ...at long last things are starting to look ‘normal’, or at least ‘new normal’, as we schedule CPD and carry details of the next Legal Walk (already!) and Countdown in May. If the dinner was anything to go by, meeting face to face has definitely not gone out of fashion, so we are expecting great support for these events.

Contents 4 4 5 6 8 10 11 12 14 14 14

President’s Report Probate Genealogy Committee Our man in the Society - by the then new boy New Partnership for Property Powerhouses News from NCLS YLAL and the SQE Requirement Menopause and the workplace Countdown...

Legal Walk 2022....

We’ll Miss You...

Published by: EAST PARK COMMUNICATIONS Ltd. Unit 27a, Price St. Business Centre, Price St., Birkenhead, Wirral, Merseyside CH41 4JQ Tel: 0151 651 2776 simon@eastparkcommunications.co.uk www.eastparkcommunications.co.uk

Advertising Simon Castell Managing Editor Sue Bailey Layout Stuart Turner pp. 1-18 David Coffey pp. 19-36

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Innovative products and expert conveyancing searches Our Excellence award winners in detail Dates for your diaries Charitable wills on the rise Home care in the UK Protecting transaction funds Flood Data Insights SRA Accounts Rules - Recap of key changes Drainage & Water Reports for NewBuild Homes Technology and the future of meetings EWI launch Core Competencies for Expert Witnesses

Accounts Tony Kay

Legal Notice © East Park Communications Ltd.

Published Spring 2022

None of the editorial or photographs may be reproduced without prior written permission from the publishers. East Park Communications Ltd would like to point out that all editorial comment and articles are the responsibility of the originators and may or may not reflect the opinions of East Park Communications Ltd. Correct at time of going to press.

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4 - Norfolk Law - President’s Report

President’s Report It was a great honour to have been elected as President of the Norfolk & Norwich Law Society at the end of last year and I would also like to formally thank immediate Past President Tom Bailey for leading the committee over the past two years. As we commence this new NNLS year I would also like to take the opportunity to congratulate Ginny Colman on her new role as Vice President of NNLS, and to welcome all our new committee members.

We are hoping as a committee that this year will bring an opportunity to meet together socially once again, as many of the Covid restrictions have now come to an end, and we are pleased to be planning a return to our Lawyers Do Countdown event in the spring. This year should also provide, as always, a great variety of training courses that will be offered both online and offline.

Notwithstanding the move away from Covid restrictions, these continue to be uncertain times in the world, not least in relation to the situation in Ukraine. NNLS stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and is ready to support our legal community in any associated challenges that they may face in relation to the current crisis. In addition, there are many other challenges legal practitioners are facing in the post-pandemic era, and the committee are here to support you as we are able to - please do contact one of the officers if there is anything NNLS can assist with. Otherwise I look forward to meeting with you at one of our forthcoming events soon.

Jessica Piper President, Norfolk & Norwich Law Society

Probate Genealogy – Specialist Help for Probate Practitioners Probate Genealogy – also known as ‘Heir Hunting’- is a crucial part of the legal sector, helping probate professionals with their workload on a daily basis. The core service offerings are locating difficult to find beneficiaries named in wills and establishing and finding the relevant next of kin in intestacy cases.

With recent analysis showing that up to two in three deaths in the UK last year was intestate, the work carried out checking family trees and verifying entitled beneficiaries by probate genealogists can save lawyers and probate professionals a huge amount of time. This work can also help ensure the accurate distribution of estates too.

You might think that in this ever-connected world that we live in, finding beneficiaries would be relatively straight forward, yet this is frequently not the case. On a general level, people forget to update their contact details when they move residence or can drop off electoral rolls and other government databases. In some instances, individuals simply don’t want to be found easily for whatever reason.

Whilst the importance of probate genealogy firms is ever increasing, it surprises many to learn that it is an unregulated industry, with no set entry requirements. Ever since the Heir Hunters TV series sensationalised the sector, there has been a small boom in the number of firms and individuals offering the service – often with little to no experience.

Therefore, reputation and professionalism are key, and most

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firms (though not all) have suitably qualified staff undertaking the research work. East Anglia-based firm Anglia Research employ more accredited genealogists, legally qualified and independently regulated staff than any other UK probate research company.

Accreditations can also help indicate if a firm follows industry or best practice recommendations. Both firm and individual accreditations should come from professional bodies, with recognised staff qualifications via exam boards such as CILEx. Firms can become corporate members of industry organisations such as the Association of Probate Researchers.

Transparency and ethical practice should be key in the probate genealogy industry. Working with a reputable firm with a long-established track record should ensure that future risks are fully mitigated.

In addition, it’s not just people tracing where probate genealogists can help; they can also assist with financial asset and global bankruptcy searches, statutory will research for Court of Protection practitioners, and providing missing beneficiary insurance quotations.

So next time you are faced with a not-so-straight forward probate case, don’t be afraid to instruct a reputable probate genealogy firm to carry out the heavy lifting for you.

Joe Lander heads up the business development function at Anglia Research, who are based in Ipswich, Suffolk. For further information or advice please send your query to legal@angliaresearch.co.uk

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6 - Norfolk Law - News

Our Man in the Society

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- by the then New Boy

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10 - Norfolk Law - News

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12 - Norfolk Law - Wellbeing

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14 - Norfolk Law - Events

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Norfolk Law - Advertorial - 15

Providing innovative products and expert searches for the ever-busy conveyancing sector X-Press Legal Services Norfolk & Suffolk is a property search company that provides expert reports to solicitors and conveyancing professionals across the region. The company has been supporting the conveyancing sector throughout the past year, as the property market boom has seen increased demand and pressure across the sector.

Owner of the company, Ashley Peters comments: “We have been working flat out due to the increased demand for our searches, which are a real measure of demand in the property market generally. We have seen higher levels of searches than ever before, increasing 50% since the stamp duty holiday started.”

Part of a 27-office network across England and Wales, X-Press Legal Services Norfolk & Suffolk provides a complete range of property searches and reports.

Ashley continues: “Law firms are increasingly turning to us as we can provide all the same products and services as larger search companies, but also provide the customer service of a local company.

We are able to get to know our clients personally and form strong relationships, an important factor during an increasingly digital age.

“Our products are constantly being innovated, ensuring your data is absolutely safe in our hands. Many new clients who came onboard during the pandemic were attracted by our range of digital services and our security innovations, including being the first search company to achieve a Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation and a Gold Standard partnership with FormEvo and SDLT.co.uk.

“We pride ourselves on making it as easy as possible for conveyancers to deliver legal services to their clients, providing a ‘one-stop shop’ for all your search needs. We save our clients time and money with our product range and specialist reports, helping to ensure property transactions reach completion with the minimum of fuss.”

With over 20 years’ experience, X-Press Legal Services is one of the top ten search providers in the UK. Trusted by more than 500 legal practices in England and Wales, the firm produces a staggering 400,000+ conveyancing searches and reports each year.

For more information about X-Press Legal Services Norfolk and Suffolk visit www.xpresslegal.co.uk/offices/norfolk-suffolk/ or please call Ashley Peters on 0330 159 5358. or Jo French on 0330 1595 356.

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16 - Norfolk Law - Awards for Excellence

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20 - Norfolk Law - Advertorial

Charitable Wills on the Rise Growth in the number of people choosing to benefit good causes from their Will Public appetite for legacy giving has hit a new height with almost one in five UK charity donors choosing to leave a gift in their Will (19%), up from 14% in 2013. A further 10% intend to make a gift from their Will or are preparing to do so.

It also highlights how often people change or update their Will, with just over half of respondents with a Will saying they have already updated it at least once and almost 6 in 10 indicating they are likely to change it in future.

Legal advisers are seen to play a critical role in making clients aware of the option of including a gift in their Will, with six in ten of the giving public saying they have used or would use a solicitor or Will-writer to set out their final wishes.

BARRIERS TO LEGACY GIVING The concept of legacy giving appeals to the UK public, who are inspired by the message that even a small gift could make a big difference and that this income is vital to charities’ work. But the study also identified barriers. People naturally want to look after their family and friends first and foremost, some think they don’t have enough assets to leave a gift, while others say they simply didn’t think of it at the time.

These are the key findings from Remember A Charity’s consumer benchmarking study– a survey of over 2,000 charity donors aged 40+, tracking legacy giving attitudes and behaviour over the past eight years.

Remember A Charity runs a free Campaign Supporter scheme for solicitors and Will-writers, providing promotional resources and useful guidance for referencing legacy giving with clients.

Three in ten donors with a Will have included a charity. That proportion rises significantly among the affluent, those who are aware of the tax incentives and those who seek professional advice, as well as those who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual. While legacy giving is becoming increasingly popular among the giving public, just 9% reject the concept of leaving a gift in their Will.

Find out more at www.rememberacharity.org.uk/solicitor

Rob Cope

Rob Cope, director of Remember A Charity – a consortium of 200 UK charities, adds: “Leaving a gift in your Will is such a positive and empowering decision to make during end-of-life planning and the legal sector has been a major driver of this change. The more solicitors that make clients aware of the option of giving in this way and can talk through the practicalities of doing so, the closer we get to a world where legacy giving becomes the norm.”

IMPACT OF GIFTS IN WILLS Legacy giving is the largest source of voluntary income to UK charities, raising £3.4 billion annually.1 That income has sustained charitable services throughout the pandemic; from hospices to shelters for those suffering from domestic abuse, mental health helplines to rescue services.

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Smee & Ford, 2021

Will you remember the horses at Redwings Horse Sanctuary?

Remember Redwings in your Will and save the lives of hundreds of horses in desperate need for years to come.

Call 01508 481030 or email legacies@redwings.co.uk to find out how to leave a legacy today.

Thank you

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“This growth in appetite for legacy giving will be vital for the future of good causes across the nation,” 1 says Cope.

If you love horses, remember them!

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PREVALENCE OF WILLS The study, carried out by the independent research firm OKO, reports that 62% of donors have already prepared a Will, with the likelihood of doing so logically increasing with age. 82% of those aged over 70 have written a Will, compared with just 46% of those in their early 40s.

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“When you consider that, not so long ago, legacy giving was really only seen as something for the wealthy, it’s wonderful to see so many people now understanding that their gift, no matter what size, really can make a difference.”

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Norfolk Law - Advertorial - 23

Home Care in the UK

Angela Gifford Home Care in the UK – will talk of a career path encourage more people to work in the Care Sector? A point of view from a Home Care Provider since 1980 One definition of a career path is: a sequence or series of job positions which lead on to short term or long-term professional goals.

Career path sounds attractive, but in the home care sector, the vast number of people working in this area of care support are care workers who daily turn up at an individual’s front door to provide care support from a 15-minute visit to covering 24/7. The real engine of any care system.

There is little scope for a career path in the care sector. There are approx.

950,000 care workers in England so very few are going to make senior professional positions. Some may go

onto other related professions such as nursing, but they are a tiny minority.

It is my view therefore that trying to encourage people into this sector can only come from one direction and that is having levels of care that have related, skill set, renumeration.

1 There should be domestic task care workers, offering support that enables people to stay in their own home such as shopping, cleaning, making meals, laundry, being outside the door when someone has a shower, etc.

Few would recognise this as a career path, but such a system would enable a care worker to choose to remain at the support level they feel happier with or to progress to the next stages knowing the difference in skills needed would be compensated with a higher wage.

Daily the number of care workers is reducing. The sector needs a major shakeup and now is the time to do it.

Angela Gifford Owner of Able Community Care Ltd. www.ablecommunitycare.com

2 A second level would provide assistance with personal care, helping to shower a person, supporting continence needs, mobility support, medication assistance, helping to feed a person, etc.

3 The third level is for more complex care, the level before the support needs to become a nursing or mental health nursing need.

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24 - Norfolk Law - Advertorial

Protecting Transaction Funds There is no doubt, we are set to live with ongoing impact of COVID 19 for years to come. For the legal industry, the consequences of the pandemic have already reshaped the working environment. Law firms have wisely reevaluated processes and are employing new technologies to digitize workflows and manage remote communication. However, these changes have offered new opportunities for cyber criminals with altered working practices introducing potential vulnerabilities and therefore an increased risk of fraudulent activity.

Criminals have gone online and have become more sophisticated and experienced than ever before, deliberately, and increasingly targeting conveyancing firms due to the regular large sums of money transferred on the completion of property purchases.

As a result, since the start of the pandemic, there has been a rapid rise in scam alerts and fraud attempts. For example: in the past year, according to SRA data there has been a 27% increase overall, in scam alerts when comparing 2021 to 2020. In 2021, 91% of all scam alerts relate to some sort of impersonation. Email is a growing risk with 48% of all 2021 alerts related to fraudulent email activity compared with 21% in 2020.

The repercussions of cyber fraud can be devastating for the client and law firm, so Lawyer Checker’s goal is to help organisations embed risk and compliance culture within their own practices. We believe firms need to adopt an ethos of awareness across the firm to mitigate the risk of fraud. Staff need to understand the risks and have an insight into what can go wrong, so every day processes can be updated in line with the dramatically increasing threat.

We know that one of the main risks is criminals impersonating other law firms to obtain monies sent between purchasing and vendor parties. They can easily intercept phone calls, redirect and replace posted communication and hack into emails, with the objective of attempting to divert funds into their own accounts.

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Emily Haskey

It’s easy to miss the slight alteration of a single digit in a sender’s email address and suddenly a conveyancer has been supplied with a fraudster’s bank account details instead of the law firm they believed they were working with.

Although nothing is 100% guaranteed, defense strategies can be put in place to safeguard every transaction. Lawyer Checker was set up 11 years ago and now employs 28 staff who are experts in cybercrime prevention.

Lawyer Checker’s service validates the destination details of the recipient bank account of the solicitor receiving funds for every property transaction quickly and easily. Lawyer Checker is a web-based solution and can be accessed from any location 24/7 at the click of a mouse, supplying an audit trail for law firms as well as ensuring due diligence by adhering to the SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors (SCCS) 4.2 - to safeguard client money and assets.

Lawyer Checker’s unique algorithm checks details against ten different databases in real time. It integrates with SRA scam alerts and safeguards transactions against human error and typos while also providing the most up to date information.

All frequent and infrequent results are processed through the latest NatWest tracker to check bank account details.

We have verified over 4000 accounts and reported back on incorrect details.

Reports are low cost and can be attributed as a disbursement. Included are two

searches: one which is usually completed at the start of the conveyancing process, plus a further check just before the funds are transferred. Lawyer Checker’s unique algorithm ensures there have been no new alerts during the interim. This is key with transaction times now taking longer and ensures the search is fully updated, making it easy and cost effective to mitigate risk of fraud during the transaction.

The majority of our search results are returned within five minutes. For those that require further research (because of an infrequent or unknown result), we work to an SLA of four working hours, but these are often returned much faster, generally within the hour. PDF reports can easily be saved to the case file, removing the stress for conveyancers to demonstrate due diligence for auditing purposes.

We also offer Consumer Bank Account Checker which, as its name suggests, validates the destination of funds for the sale of a property for customers. Covering most UK bank accounts and powered

by Experian, this cost-effective check is another part of law firm’s armour against cyber criminals.

Over the last 18 months we’ve seen a steady uplift, and 15 of the top 20 conveyancers are now using us. The question is: can your firm afford not to? www.lawyerchecker.co.uk Emily Haskey, Operations Manager, Lawyer Checker, A Dye & Durham Solution

26 - Norfolk Law - Advertorial

Flood Data Insights Data from a series of Data Insights Reports from Landmark Information has shown the broad extent to which flooding poses an ongoing threat across England and Wales.

The report provides land and property industry professionals with insightful snapshots of rich flood data to explain the true impact risk upon communities across the country. It highlights the local authorities that have the highest rate of properties located in Flood Zones 2 and 3, and reveals that 37 out of the 335 local authorities have at least a fifth of properties in Flood Zone 2 within their jurisdiction.

The report also identifies that more than 27,000 (6.7%) notable Listed Buildings are based in areas deemed to be at the highest Flood Risk parameter (3), in addition to almost 12% of all 200,000 Scheduled Monuments are situated in Flood Zones 2 or 3, which include highly notable buildings like the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace and Caerphilly Castle.

The new series of Data Insights Reports, which will be published every quarter, will focus on specific themes, from a review of planning updates and the local and national impacts, to uncovering information relating to a range of environmental hazards.

Chris Loaring, managing director of Landmark Information (Legal), said, “According to the Environment Agency, approximately one in every six properties in England are considered to be at risk of flooding. This is forecast to grow as climate change continues to translate into shifting impacts on both current and evolving land use.

“It is no secret that flooding poses a continued risk across our country – whether from surface water floods from heavy rainfall, groundwater flooding, through to coastal erosion and rising sea levels. It is something property

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professionals in all sectors need to be highly tuned to.

“We are therefore pleased to share a series of Data Insights Reports that provide valuable and revealing insights derived from our data and help better inform those working across the property industry who can benefit from a clearer view of the future.

Data: the lifeblood of the property transaction “In the two decades that Landmark Information has been supporting the property industry with vital due diligence, the way the data is captured, accessed, assessed and delivered has shifted.

“From a legal conveyancing perspective, the way you manage – and access – that data is critically important to ensure the most appropriate advice is provided. Live data feeds will provide the most up to date picture, and this approach will herald a significant new chapter in the evolution of due diligence in the property sector.

“We are proud to be driving forward this digitised approach and working closely with industry stakeholders to consider how the continued evolution of data feeds can benefit every part of the property industry.”

“From paper-based reports, CD-ROMs and PDF reporting, now the transition is taking us to digital. The reliance on documents and PDFs will ease and we will see an increased appetite for digital data that feed directly into an organisation’s existing workflow. Instead of capturing a single moment in time, the data will instead be continuous and provide a current flow of data that is relevant at any given moment in time.

Chris Loaring “Flood data, alongside planning datasets, is one of the most dynamic risk types. The data is continually changing, driven by many factors – from local community and infrastructure updates, to the changing picture of the global climate. Having access to data that considers historical flood events while assessing modelled data relating to future impacts offers precise insights that developers and purchasers need, in order to make informed decisions.

Landmark Information has an extensive wealth of data that is used across the property industry, every day, by developers, property lawyers, environmental consultants, estate agents, surveyors, architects and planners to help in confident decision-making and in transactions.

For more information visit, https://www.landmark.co.uk/ news-insights/industry-reports/.

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SRA Accounts Rules – Recap of Key Changes The new SRA Accounts Rules are vastly reduced in size and prescription.

Law firms are encouraged to use their own judgement in applying the rules, and whilst the overarching principle remains the same, there are additional benefits for firms and their clients.

Key changes • New requirement to reconcile clients’ own accounts. This was absent from the old rules, but the SRA deems it incredibly important as client money is being operated outside of the general, highlycontrolled client account.

Some firms are not devoting the necessary resource to comply with this rule and there are still teething issues.

The SRA appreciates that there is a large shift needed to comply and has set out additional guidance on its minimum expectations.

• Third party managed accounts (TPMA).

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This is a new area of the rules which gives firms an alternative to holding client money. Any money held in a TPMA is not deemed client money and therefore falls outside the scope of the SRA Accounts Rules entirely.

• Firms can avoid having a client account if the only money held or received by the firm is in respect of their fees and disbursements that relate to costs and expenses incurred on behalf of their client.

• Fewer set time frames. From a practical point of view, firms can set their own time frames and decide how to deal with other elements of the rules that were previously very rigid.

This provides significant opportunity for firms to adopt approaches that are more appropriate for them. However, most firms seem to be simply carrying on with the old timeframes under previous rules. There’s

no reason why this can’t or shouldn’t be done, but now we are over two years on perhaps it’s time to think about how the rules could work better for you?

Whether firms are sticking to the old timeframes or have changed to new ones, the processes need to be formally documented in their procedures and manuals. The rules no longer have the time frames written within them, so the rules themselves are not enough to fall back on.

If you have any concerns regarding the SRA Accounts Rules, please get in touch.

You can find contact details on the Our People section of our website larkinggowen.co.uk. Alternatively, call 0330 024 0888 or email enquiry@larking-gowen. co.uk.

Ellis Lake

Norfolk Law - Advertorial - 29

The Poppy’s When Poppy’s Dog Guardian conta

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30 - Norfolk Law - Advertorial

Geodesys drainage and water report for new build homes

The Geodesys NewBuildDW - the first of its kind - provides all the same quality data on water and sewerage connections as the Law Society’s official CON29DW report. However, NewBuildDW focuses specifically on the information relevant to new build residential properties and offers conveyancers a lower-priced alternative to the full report. It also includes several pages of extra tips and advice for buyers.

• Easy-to-use interactive navigation making retrieving information easy for users • Top tips and advice relevant to buyers of new build properties • £5m professional indemnity insurance

Jonny Davey, Product Manager for Geodesys, comments:

“We are committed to providing all the information home buyers and their legal advisors may need on a property to avoid any unnecessary future risks and additional costs.

“We decided to launch this new product after identifying a gap in the market for a comprehensive report which has been specifically tailored to provide information for new build residential properties. All data used in the report is sourced from Anglian Water, which retains liability for its accuracy.”

Making conveyancers’ jobs easier, the new report will provide: • 17 questions including two high quality water and sewerage maps • Crystal-clear front-page customer dashboard highlighting information on key questions

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Jonny continues: “Produced by industry experts, our streamlined report clearly outlines all the most pertinent information. Some data contained in a full CON29DW is simply not available for new builds, so NewBuildDW allows conveyancers to access the key details at a more competitive price.”

The NewBuildDW Report is available for £36 (including VAT) in the Anglian Water sewerage area only and for residential properties classed as new build. For more information, please visit: http://www.geodesys.com

32 - Norfolk Law - Advertorial

Technology and the future of meetings Facebook is now Meta. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg wants to upgrade the internet to a “metaverse”, a virtual reality space where people based anywhere in the world can meet in the same virtual space.

But can technology ever adequately replace face-to-face meetings?

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the digital revolution. The rise of online shopping, remote working and the widespread use of video-conferencing and online seminars means digital tools are now in everyday use by most people – either in the workplace or at home.

Technology has upended many industries significantly, ranging from taxis and Uber to hotels and Airbnb. It’s not that long ago that people wanting to buy equities had to call a broker who was literally in contact with someone standing on a trading floor shouting out “buy” and “sell” orders. Now trades can be executed by logging into a smartphone app.

Facebook now wants to bring virtual-reality headsets into the workplace, allowing colleagues and clients to inhabit cyberspace in ways that were never possible before.

Silicon Valley tells us that the metaverse offers untold ways to enhance communication for all – but it could potentially complicate the relationship between individuals if they are only together in a virtual space rather than a real, physical room.

in the future workplace. Or, as the excessively slick public-relations team for Facebook’s Reality Labs put it in the sales pitch for Horizon Workrooms, its new VR meeting space concept: “Sometimes you have to get into the same room, even when you’re miles apart.”

When running any organisation face-to-face interactions will always be the gold standard.

So, is Mr Zuckerberg’s metaverse idea a Silicon Valley gimmick – or could it become an invaluable tool for businesses and other organisations?

Clearly, this is a difficult question to answer.

However, the way the board of directors of Britain’s major listed companies have behaved since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic may offer us a clue or two.

The right format for the right meeting Zoom’s video-conferencing platform became synonymous with pandemic lockdowns – with the system – or similar – used ubiquitously.

This meant that the boards of Britain’s FTSE 100 giants were running their businesses by holding almost all meetings virtually.

As hybrid and home working becomes the norm, the social-media giant wants to leverage its own virtual-reality (VR) Oculus headset as a tool for professional workspaces in the metaverse. This evolution of the internet will allow people all over the world to enter virtual meetings and workspaces via their headset wherever they are located, the technophiles say.

Consultancy group Board Intelligence, which aims to help and improve practices in Britain’s boardrooms, carried out a straw poll in April that suggested about two-thirds of UK boardrooms will continue to meet online for more than half the time. However, some meetings are too important for participants to risk missing the nuances of non-verbal communication in a room of people.

The metaverse is a more all-encompassing version of the internet. The term refers to digital spaces rendered more lifelike by the use of VR or augmented-reality (AR) technology so they become “fully immersive”. People can interact with one another and digital objects while operating virtual representations – or avatars – of themselves.

Board Intelligence’s co-chief executive Jennifer Sundberg believes a “best-of-both” solution is the way forward. She expects that a hybrid calendar of meetings will emerge instead of “hybrid meetings” where some participants log in via video-conferencing platform and a proportion in a head office meeting room. In reality, this means that directors are likely to carry out their supervisory duties (such as monitoring targets) via meeting in the cloud, with more important steering meetings about strategy or culture taking place in person with all people in the room to ensure there are no barriers to proper communication.

Meet you in the metaverse?

Following the Covid-19 pandemic, hybrid working is almost certainly here to stay. With some time spent in the office and other days working from home, colleagues will obviously spend less time together in person than may have been the case in a pre-pandemic five-day working week. Proponents of the metaverse claim that its ability to connect disparate employees means the technology has a place

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Managers are already likely to know which meetings they believe need to take place in person and can continue with real-world interactions where necessary. However,

technology can offer ways to keep information flowing efficiently – and could even provide a platform to reach potential new customers and clients that were not being reached before.

Technology will continue to revolutionise business practices and boost productivity. No organisation can afford to ignore the rise of the metaverse because the new technology offers the chance to reach individuals and organisations in these new digital spaces that possibly were not available before. Impressive new technology using this platform (whatever its final form turns out to be) needs to be deployed wisely to ensure it is helping rather than harming an organisation’s interests by increasing complexity or impairing efficient communication. As we have seen with its internet precursor, new technology brings substantial opportunity but also unforeseen problems. In the case of the internet, cybercrime and misinformation are two such threats that fall into this category.

However, the metaverse bring opportunities to increase an organisation’s reach, make communication more time efficient and connect with people with which it was not possible before. The internet was just the start – the digital revolution is ongoing. Everything is about to change once more.

By Garry White, Chief Investment Commentator, Charles Stanley Wealth Managers

To discuss any of the themes in this article, or for information on how Charles Stanley support professional advisers, please contact Investment Managers, Mark Hinds and Aimee Hogg, from our Norwich team.

01603 856 932 www.charles-stanley.co.uk/norwich-office The value of investments, and any income derived from them, can fall as well as rise.

Investors may get back less than originally invested. Charles Stanley & Co. Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

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EWI Launch Core Competencies for Expert Witnesses EWI has launched a core competency framework for Expert Witnesses which sets out the attributes, knowledge, and skills that experts must develop if they wish to act as an Expert Witness.

The framework was developed by senior staff, senior members and the Board.

It is a useful tool in a number of ways: • It outlines the knowledge and skills that are required of Expert Witnesses.

• It can be used as a self-assessment tool for you to think about your personal and professional development.

• It can be used for skills analysis, training, and career development plans and enables you to identify Continuing Professional Development opportunities and training needs • It underpins EWI’s levels of membership and the assessment and vetting process for each.

• If you are not yet a member, it can be used to assess the membership level you should consider.

• It can be used to assess relevant training courses for Expert Witnesses.

The Core Competency Framework The Core Competencies document has been designed as a practical self-assessment tool.

This means you can carry out self-assessment of your knowledge and skills against all areas.

To assist you in doing this, the EWI has developed a set of selfassessment ratings which are included in the tool. These will help you consider your level of knowledge and skills in each area and identify areas that you might want to develop as part of your own Continuing Professional Development.

For those considering membership of the EWI, the expected levels for Knowledge and Experience for each competency have been mapped to the different levels of membership which enable you to consider the appropriate level of membership for which to apply.

Chief Executive Officer, Simon Berney-Edwards, said “Over the last year we have seen the results of Experts acting as Expert Witnesses without fully understanding their duties to the court or having the sufficient training and competencies to act as an Expert Witness. As an Expert Witness, Experts must develop additional knowledge, skills and competencies in order to fulfil their duty to the court. This framework outlines the full set of competencies which must be developed in order to become an Expert Witness.”

You can download the competency framework from the EWI website at: www.ewi.org.uk/corecompetencies

The Expert Witness Institute.

Registered office: 159-161 Temple Chambers, 3-7 Temple Avenue, London, EC4Y 0DA Email: info@ewi.org.uk The Expert Witness Institute is a company registered with number 3317333 www.nnls.org

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