5 Things from Lockdown We Kept in the Legal Industry

In this article, we discuss the changes the Legal Industry saw here in Melbourne post the global pandemic. These are the ways our working lives changed after months of working from home.

When law firms started to work from home in March 2020, there was an element of novelty involved. Melbourne embraced working from home and quickly adopted technology to keep us virtually connected to our workplaces. We iso-baked, had Zoom drinks with friends and colleagues and complained about home schooling our children.

As businesses started to get into the tricky and complex planning involved with bringing part of their workforces back into office buildings, we look at the parts of lockdown that improved our working lives.

These are the bits we kept.

1. Flexibility

Gone are the days of arguing that a role could not be done remotely. Working from home is here to stay and there is continued demand from candidates to keep some work life balance and flexibility in their role. This typically involves requests for a couple of days in the office and a day or two working from home.

2. Technology

Historically the legal industry has been slow to adopt technology. 2020 saw the biggest advances and adoption of technology driven by the need to get off paper based systems and work remotely. We saw online dispute resolution, smart legal contracts, e-signatures and electronic execution of documentation. This, combined with virtual meetings, courts and mediation proceedings being held online, has really been a stunning feat of innovation and achievement.

3. Productivity

In our 2020 Impact of Coronavirus survey we found that 40% of respondents were feeling more productive from home. Less time spent commuting, less meetings and less distracting co-workers all meant that more was getting done.

For those employees who kept at least some flexibility in their working lives, this productivity bump has continued.

4. Loyalty

Firms that took exceptional care of their people during the global pandemic earned a certain amount of employee loyalty. These firms communicated well, looked out for their company culture and were very focused on the health and safety of their people. They sent iso-gifts, they managed to facilitate team building activities. They encouraged team members to remain a part of the company mission. This led to an element of solidarity in teams in having come through these challenging times together.

5. Virtual Meetings

Virtual meetings are here to stay. Why travel interstate or long distance when we have demonstrated what is achievable via Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zoom, Skype for Business and Webex. Some firms are even having less or shorter meetings than pre-Covid, allowing more time for action and productivity!

The legal industry as a whole navigated the challenge of Covid-19 and Melbourne’s lockdowns well and bounced back better than ever.

Taking the positives from the experience and embedding them into new work practices has proved that we have all learned something!

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