‘We are determined to see this as a long-term issue and are not taking short-term measures or cutting costs.’ Kathleen Russ, Travers Smith
LB100 leaders give their views on an unprecedented, Covid-hit year and look to another uncertain 12 months ahead
Back to the future
‘We don’t know how things will play out. And that’s not because I’m dumber than everyone else; it’s because I don’t know. It feels more like the early 1980s and 1990s than 2008, which was a financial crash which impacted certain sectors of the economy. This is very much in the core of the economy.’
James Palmer, senior partner, Herbert Smith Freehills
Some months are better than others
‘We approached the Law Society and The Bank of England early on in this crisis to ask for the implications for the Scottish market, which has a high proportion of high street firms where a slowdown in real estate and the justice system has an impact. We’re confident in our own ability to trade throughout this. There are a number of projections as to the shape of the recovery, whether that is V-shaped or tick-shaped or other ways of describing it, we assume it will be a slow and steady recovery where some months are better than other months.’
Nick Scott, managing partner, Brodies
Seen it, done it
‘Those who have been through recessions before will know it often hits later. We finished the previous year in pretty good shape, but that was the previous year, prior to the pandemic. We feel we are holding off the worst effects of it for now. But what do you do? You do what you always do: stay close to your clients, talk to them about what is on their mind and be as attractive to them as possible.’
Colin Passmore, senior partner, Simmons & Simmons
Funny how
‘There has been a recovery in activity, but I’m more worried about what happens next year. The financial crisis was six to eight months of nothing happening, but this could be a bit more of a lull and then six months from now it gets tough, it will be a funny-shaped recovery.’
Roland Turnill, head of M&A, Slaughter and May
Help wanted
‘The government response has been very welcome but there have also been some problems, but that is not surprising given the speed they had to operate at. Furlough is obviously very welcome but for some sectors such as hospitality – they were forced into decisions before that became available. In general, people are positive about the approach the government has taken. Furlough was a pause to plan for a lot of businesses; it was not a way of avoiding restructuring.’
Richard Miskella, co-managing partner, Lewis Silkin
Payback time
‘I don’t know what more the government could have done. My worry is for the future, we have to pay all of this back one day, and what does that look like? For any business at any time debt matters – debt always matters at the end of the day. We have a war chest of cash, there are opportunities out there whether it is for bolt-ons or mergers or things like that, that’s the sort of stuff we’re looking to do.’
Mike Wilson, managing partner, Blake Morgan
Front foot
‘We are looking to expand with lateral hires. We are on the acquisition trail across all areas, but we want to build up our non-contentious work and now’s the time to do it. We need to be brave and opportunistic as well as not being reckless. The challenge will be maintaining the culture as we get bigger and we are determined to meet that challenge.’
Stephen Parkinson, senior partner, Kingsley Napley
New tricks
‘I’m not forecasting the end of the office but we’ve learnt a lot in the last six months. We had an ambition to be paperless and we’ve proved we can do it. Filing cabinets take up a lot of floor space and if we didn’t have them we could lose a floor. We’ve spent money on things we always did. Now we are questioning whether it was value for money or just habit. There is a potential for smart responses. Let’s not hurry back to what we did before.’
Nick Thomas, senior partner, Kennedys
Do the right thing
‘We are determined to see this as a long-term issue and are not taking short-term measures or cutting costs. We didn’t furlough anyone or reduce anyone’s hours. People continued on the same pay they were on before because that was the right thing to do.’
Kathleen Russ, senior partner, Travers Smith