It has become increasingly clear over the past few weeks that the world is not about to return to normal. With many months likely before an effective vaccine or treatment for Covid-19 will be available, governments and businesses, law firms included, need to identify a strategy for exiting the lockdown. The need for a clear exit plan is urgent. The alarming cost of lockdown, whether economic, social or even health-related is becoming clearer. However, this is difficult: medical experts and politicians are clear on one thing, which is that there will a second wave of Covid-19 infections.  Unless we take steps to behave differently to before, the virus will take hold again. 

Law firms have a responsibility, not only to their people but also to society, to do their bit.  Law firm management teams have some difficult, and finely-balanced decisions to make over the next few days, to determine what their post-lockdown working arrangements should look like. They will need to look at the largely unenticing menu of options and compare the benefits of each option with the downsides. Should they return to the workplace at all, just yet?  The business of law is such that the vast majority of the work can easily be done from home. Lockdown has demonstrated that.  However, firms must consider the interests of their own people as well as those of wider society. 

Some, who live alone, are desperate to return to the social world that is the office.  Trainees have experience to gain. Everyone has experienced "Zoom fatigue", and the long term mental health implications are potentially serious. So, if there is to be a return to the office, how best to achieve that?  Which parts of the workforce should be permitted to return? What adjustments to the work place will need to take place? And how should firms manage future suspected Covid-19 cases?

The professional services industry is arguably among the more fortunate in this pandemic: the vast majority of services can be provided from employees' homes. There is no need for specialist premises, or specialist equipment, and technologies such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams have enabled advisers to keep up close contacts with their clients.  Most law firms have been able to move wholesale to a working from home environment with relative ease, leaving only a small skeleton team in the office to monitor post and provide printing services for the rare occasion that electronic bundles cannot be used.  There is a case for saying that law firms should continue to work from home in order to minimise travel on public transport and facilitate social distancing (at least of their own workforce).   Indeed, you could go as far as to say that they owe a duty to society to do so.

However, the reality is not so straightforward. Some roles simply cannot be performed from home, for example, the front of house and catering roles, and the jobs performed by the mail and print room staff. Other roles are far easier to perform from the office, such as IT support and secretarial services.  Law firms also have a responsibility to their trainees to ensure they get sufficient experience and supervision, and this is undoubtedly more challenging when trainees are confined to their homes and perhaps are not as visible as they would be in the office environment to work providers.   Some employees have sorely missed the social interactions of the workplace and are desperate to return to some semblance of normality. 

Others have home environments which make working from home very difficult: they may share homes with several flatmates all of whom are vying for the limited desk space and broadband, and some are working from their bedrooms, often without an office-style desk and chair, raising health and safety issues. And, on top of all of these considerations, is that fact that often business opportunities flow from client meetings and also those chance interactions between colleagues that cannot happen when everyone us working from their own homes.  On balance, most law firms will be planning on some form of return to the office albeit in a way which is very different from the pre Covid era.

In the absence of any government guidance, currently, on how to manage office openings following a relaxation of the lockdown, firms are anticipating that social distancing measures will be necessary. The first step is therefore to work out how offices can be configured to enable a 2 metre distance between employees to be respected. This will involve moving desks on office floors and reorganising public spaces such as the restaurants, reception areas and conference rooms, to permit social distancing.  As a result it is likely that offices will not be able to accommodate the entire work force and some form of "teaming" (where the workforce is divided into different teams who take it in turn to come into the office) will be necessary.  

Another consideration is whether employees can prudently return to the office to work.  Some have underlying health conditions, or live with family members who do. Others have no option but to take public transport to work, putting themselves at greater risk than if they could walk, cycle or drive. A huge factor in determining which employees can feasibly return to the office will be the opening of schools.  Many employees are currently double-hatting as home educators and nurseries.  Until the schools and childcare facilities reopen, it will be practically impossible for some of them to return to the office, especially as many grandparents may still be advised to self-isolate for the moment and will not be able to support with childcare.

Law firms will need to decide whether they mandate a return to the office, or whether they give their employees a choice.  One practical suggestion is to conduct surveys of the workforce to establish their ability and appetite to return to work. This will permit firms to understand the mood music and also the likely number of people they would need to accommodate, and will assist in identifying the available solutions for configuring the space.

Most law firm employers, quite rightly, say their priority is the health and safety of their people and their clients. Those words are easy to say, but harder to live up to, particularly in the unprecedented moment of returning to the office from a pandemic lockdown.   Law firms, like many other office-based environments, will need to start with the health and safety nuts and bolts. If we assume that the current government guidance stays similar when lockdown eases then law firms will need to consider:  

• Social distancing - as described above, how do we avoid overcrowding and can we keep people 2m apart - both in the office space and our client areas?  This has two key dimensions.  First of all how many people can we allow in each space to support the 2m distancing.  Second, how to we make sure people comply with the distancing - we know businesses already opening are using floor spacing, posters, perspex walls, and one way systems;

• Shifts and staggering - this goes hand in hand with social distancing, and addressing worker fears about the safety of commuting and arriving at premises at peak times.   Law firms will need to challenge their traditional thinking about working hours, and consider how staggering might work (bringing back to life all that blue team/red team planning that was happening pre-lock down).  They could also consider shifts that would allow people to start earlier or later to address peak travel times, bearing in mind that those with carer responsibilities may find this more challenging;

• Cleaning protocols - deep cleans will continue to be expected, particularly in suspected cases of illness in the workplace.  They can be expensive, but will be necessary.  

• Protective equipment - we don't know where the government's guidance on PPE including face masks is going to end up, and whether guidance will extend to offices, or only public shared spaces, or something else.  But regardless, firms ought to be identifying how they get hold of PPE before lockdown eases. (There is a battle raging to get sufficient supplies of it, and note the hospitality, travel and retail sectors will have been ahead of this for some time).  Even if the government guidance is not prescriptive on use of face masks and the like, employee and client expectations may be that the PPE is available to them.   Assume large quantities of alcohol based hand sanitiser will be needed for some time.  

Note at the time of writing the government has announced that new guidance should be expected in the coming days.

What we've learned from our  peers in Asia, who have handled the return from lockdown already, is that office based businesses have taken a cautious approach, that goes beyond government guidance, to provide a safe place for workers to return to.  

And of course firms will need to juggle this with the expectations of clients - will clients want in person meetings and if so how will we achieve those safely? Or will they find that inappropriate and expect advisers to continue with remote meetings?  Just as firms will need to flex to the expectations of their people, they will need to reflect the mixed needs of their client base, and be willing to manage their expectations if they want things which are not acceptable to the health and safety standards their law firms have set.  That means getting all partners and business leaders on board with the arrangements so that more junior members of staff don't feel pressured into client situations they aren't comfortable with.  Again, trust should prevail.

To state the obvious, it will be harder and more complex to come out of lockdown than it was going in. Whatever your pandemic playbook looks like, it will need to have flex as we return to the office.  Law firms will already be planning for the return. Don't let the inputs for that planning rest only with the leadership or crisis management team. Firms should be continuously communicating with employees, setting expectations about possible return to work, and inviting feedback.  If there are employee forums then firms should be speaking to them.  Understand the employee, and client, voice.  

The most valuable advice any law firm could give itself, is listen to our people, and be transparent with them. Remember that promise you made to your workforce that you would put their health and safety first?  Don't let it be a pie-crust promise: "easily made, easily broken". Listen to those who have anxieties about public transport, or had to give up their flat and move home with their parents, or who have vulnerable people close to them or are vulnerable themselves, or simply don't trust that the workplace is safe. 

But also listen to those that feel they need to get back into the workplace, who flat share with several people and have been working from their bedroom for the past few months, whose backs are hurting for want of an ergonomic chair. Remember, there are likely to be real mental and physical health considerations for all of those groups of people. And also remember they went on a journey with you, they stepped up and dealt with full remote lockdown, amidst the fear for their jobs and their health and safety.  Law firms that come out the other side with the trust and support of their workforce will be the ones that listened, the ones that were transparent, and the ones that didn't cut too deep too soon to preserve cash.  

As firms build their plans, addressing the workforce and client feedback, they will need to plan for future developments, to address future government guidance (in particular around health and safety, including testing and contact tracing), further waves of the virus and workplace infections. Again, flex in the plan is important.

The pandemic will have tragic and long lasting impacts. We must take care not to waste the opportunities it has forced upon us. We learnt that remote working can work well, that we can continue to provide an excellent service to clients at a distance, and paradoxically we can become closer to clients and each other as we have gained insights into each other's homes and lives. Although we may be able to go back to traditional ways of working, we must ask ourselves whether we should.  Or whether more remote working should be championed. The dynamics to that conversation will include near term factors: for the various reasons already outlined many people will not be ready to come back to work at the same time as others, and so a combination of remote and office based work will be needed.  Firms will need to encourage flexibility across the workforce to continue to embrace video meetings, and ensure those not physically present are still included and valued. Firms will also need to ensure balance and fairness in how people's choices are viewed and assessed - not lauding those that return quickly over those that continue to work remotely (or vice versa).  

And as year-ends' approach, how do we assess performance and reward in this atypical year? Law firms do a good job of setting goals which go beyond the purely financial, but remuneration often closely follows the bottom line. That may not be good enough in this year. There will have been people who really stepped up to look after the well-being and cohesion of a remotely working staff. That will have diverted their time and attention from fee earning work. And yet they facilitated the environment and motivation that enabled the firm to continue to work effectively. Their contribution should not be forgotten.

Several themes have emerged from this situation:  the need for trust and transparency with people, the need to plan, but to be flexible with those plans, and the need for inclusion and fairness in the approach to our return to a version of normality. These authors share this sentiment from Sheryl Sandberg: "I hope you navigate the difficult times and come out with greater strength and resolve. I hope you find whatever balance you seek with your eyes wide open. And I hope that you - yes, you - have the ambition to lean in to your career and run the world. Because the world needs you to change it".

[This article was written at the end of April].