Helping you through Covid 19

(UPDATED 24 MARCH 2020)

Covid-19 issues fill every news bulletin, along with stories about the impact on the economy.

We want to let you know what we are doing to ensure we continue to give you a seamless and excellent service throughout this difficult period, while keeping you and our team as safe as possible.

Continuity of Service

All our lawyers have laptops which means they can access our systems and work on your cases remotely and securely. Our team are working from home, but there will be no interruption or lack of progress on your case.

We are using video conferencing facilities wherever possible to remove the need for face to face meetings and travel. All of our team has access to video conferencing: on laptops and on their mobile devices, so they can discuss your case between themselves or with you without compromising the need to not congregate in groups.

As you probably know, we have four offices in Leeds, Bradford, Harrogate and Ilkley, so we can also share and transfer work between them should the need arise.

Following the Prime Ministers statement on Monday 23 March 2020 none of our offices are open to the public and all communication with our clients and professional connections will be by telephone, email, letter or video conference until further notice.

Health and Hygiene

We have educated our colleagues regarding personal health care, such as regular hand washing, and we have increased the frequency and depth of cleaning of all our offices and client and visitor areas.

We are monitoring government guidelines and update our actions whenever the advice changes. If any member of our team suspects that they have Covid-19 or have been in contact with anyone else who might have it then they are self-isolating.

Going Forward

It doesn't look as if this will be a short term issue, so we are working on plans to make sure that there will be no problems or breaks in the service we provide. We have a project team which has drawn up appropriate resource plans to enable us to continue serving clients.

These plans include:

• Working with our suppliers to maintain our services and ensure their Coronavirus planning fits in with our own.
• Testing our Disaster Recovery Operation to maintain continuity of the business however the situation develops.
• Stress testing the impact of major disruptions and implementing robust plans to protect critical delivery of key client services and operational capabilities.

The Bottom Line

We want to reassure you that we are doing everything possible to support you through this crisis, and we take the quality of our service to you, the health of our people and the health of you very seriously.

If you have any questions or queries regarding your current matter or the issues covered in this communication do not hesitate to contact the lawyer with whom you are dealing or have most regular contact or please contact our Managing Partner Simon Stell.