Robert Lewandowski participates in the IR Global Guide – Crisis Management: Surviving and thriving in a post-pandemic world
Foreward by Andrew Chilvers
Businesses across the world are undergoing the biggest remote working experiment since Europeans first sailed from their home ports to set up trading posts in Asia 500 years ago.
This time around, however, companies are moving colleagues out of their plush city centre locations to set up offices at home. What was unthinkable only a few months ago is now the new modus operandi for professional services firms and their clients. Crisis management and business continuity have indeed come of age thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
All this may be difficult for businesses that prefer traditional ways of operating, but most are changing their habits of a lifetime out of necessity. The old adage of preparing for the worst while expecting the best has never been more apt.
Will the professional service business model change as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?
The global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals and businesses is rapidly growing. The pandemic has not only created an alarming health crisis around the world but also caused disruption to previous method of conducting traditional business. In view of the current lockdown periods and social distancing, and the closure of borders, professionals are considering alternative ways to carry out their affairs and to ensure business continuity.
First of all, due to restrictions, the bulk of legal work for clients will be prepared by members of law firms using virtual forms of communication focusing on remote work from their homes. If the pandemic remains, firms will no longer need expensive offices with large office spaces.
Until recently, prime locations (headquarters) were only used to keep the work of computer servers and electronic facilities, and to maintain communication with the courts/stage agencies and clients, via traditional postal correspondence. Law firms in Poland are now considering the option to extend the remote filing of different motions/petitions and official documents to the courts and government agencies and authorities where legally possible, largely because of the impossibility of physically making submissions. In this respect, virtual meeting and teleconferencing tools like Microsoft Teams and Zoom have become very popular. All this requires additional investment on remote technical facilities to better coordinate and improve law firms’ day-to-day work and communication with their clients, to sustain a high level of service and meet clients’ expectations.
These significant developments require increasing the visibility and reputation of legal firms via internet and memberships in local and international organisations, and networks that offer platforms for reaching out to potential clients located worldwide. Passively awaiting the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and hoping for a vaccine could turn out to be disruptive and negative for the image of a law firm and its standing in the market.
Remote working is being seen as the new normal, how will this affect the culture of professional services firms?
Traditionally, professional services such as those of lawyers, were performed by an individual who had already met his/her client face to face and learnt his/her problems during a physical meeting or over lunch, and then provided advice on a close personal relationship basis.
This manner of attracting and meeting clients is no longer the case in these challenging times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, a new mode of relationship with clients needs to be adopted using an ‘impersonal’ remote working and meeting model that might be the norm in the future.
This remote working method on the one hand could speed up some services of legal advice if well organised and internally co-ordinated through establishing a system of digital files, with all employees having access to data rooms and cases. On the other hand, this new approach may lead to a more mechanical and generic treatment of clients, without taking into consideration their specific needs and wishes. Consequently, if using the “impersonal” remote technique of communication it is important to exercise the highest degree of care and caution that each individual client requires.
With so many people now working from home using unsecure internet networks, should there be updated rules for data protection compliance? If so, should they be more relaxed given the crisis wrought by the pandemic?
Implementing remote work raises concerns of a business’s exposure to phishing attacks, ransomware or cyber-attacks, among others during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. We think that that some considerable precautions for businesses on data protection and privacy should include the following measures:
(i) ensure that employees are well-informed about the increased cyber risks and are taught how to detect phishing e-mails and avoid downloading software applications outside legitimate online stores, onto devices used for assessing corporate documents and e-mails.
(ii) ensure that passwords used to access e-mails, corporate files, IT hardware or software are not easily guessable and changed regularly. All corporate information and documents should be encrypted to ensure that only authorised parties can access them. Key remote work security tools, such as multifactor authentication, may also be used for securing sensitive information;
(iii) establish a cyber-response strategy in the event that a business has to manage a cyber-attack. This response strategy should cover both technical and legal responses.
In addition, businesses need to ensure that the collection, disclosure and/or sharing of personal data of employees (particularly personal data of employees diagnosed with COVID-19), is in line with the provisions of the Polish Data Protection Law and especially with Regulation (EU) 2916/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27th April, 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regards to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data and repealing Directive 95/46/EC.