Kayli Olson investigates the effect of 2020 on law firm risk management

No one person – nor perhaps business continuity plan (BCP) – could have foreseen or prepared for the amount of change and risk involved in 2020. Andrew Coates, the partner responsible for managing risk and compliance at law firm Kennedys, says it has had to focus on three main areas – data security, employee welfare, and making offices Covid-19 secure.

“On the data security front, we undertook a careful analysis of our workflows to ensure there weren’t any weaknesses in our processes,” he says. “With employees now working in a wide range of environments at home, we have had to be very aware of how people are using and transferring data, and ensure that those environments don’t compromise data protection or client confidentiality.

“From an employee welfare point of view, all people have had a thorough homeworking assessment to ensure their safety and wellbeing, and we had to ensure that our offices provided a Covid-19-secure environment for employees, as and when they could return to the office.”

From a legal and regulatory perspective, Claire Larbey, general counsel at Trowers & Hamlins, says the big challenge approaching lockdown was making sure people were aware of how they could work from home most effectively. “Confidentiality, in particular, was a big focus,” she says. “Where are people working from, and who could overhear them? Supervision was the other big thing.

“There was some practical advice, such as having a reminder in the diary to maintain comms, but there were also more complex areas of process that we looked into – such as the use of electronic signatures, Power of Attorney, and how the wills team was going to work if a will needed to be signed in person.”

This article was taken from ‘At home with risk’, from Briefing November/December 2020 – Alert to change. Read the full publication here.