“How are you doing in the Lockdown?”
With the announcement last week that the social distancing and business closure rules will continue unchanged for the next 3 weeks at least, I thought it was time to check in again with our clients to see how you are all doing. I am sure that, like ours, your inboxes have been avalanched with Covid 19 updates and, more recently, with e-mails offering services or information with varying degrees of usefulness or relevance.
Like everyone else, in these strange times, we at Grant Saw have sought to adapt as well as we can in the circumstances. We have done what I suspect you have done-contacted our landlords, sought deferred terms with suppliers, furloughed some staff, obtained capital loan repayment holidays, submitted our CBILS loan application and-most importantly-remembered to cancel the milk.
Our lawyers have become “legal technologists”- increasingly adept at holding Zoom meetings (or Skype for added security) and finding work-arounds to practical problems like “How do I serve a notice if I cannot do so by e-mail?”. I have long held the view that one of the top skills a lawyer can have is “problem solving” and never has that been more relevant than now.
Wills are proving popular, as people think a bit more about their mortality. We are doing out of hours appointments for those working, and sending out instructions for executing Wills, with neighbours called upon to witness them over the fence or on the car bonnet, without breaking social distancing rules, of course.
We are also topping up our Website with some readable articles and recent ones include
Adina-Leigh Collins on Director’s duties during Covid 19
https://grantsaw.com/wrongful-trading-directors-duties-and-of-course-covid-19
Angus Young on the Staying of existing Residential Possession Proceedings
https://grantsaw.com/master-of-the-rolls-stays-existing-possession-proceedings
and Mandeep Clair on a Toolkit for Family Breakdown in the Lockdown
https://grantsaw.com/a-toolkit-for-family-breakdown-in-the-lockdown
Here at my “home office” in Essex, looking out into my garden, it can be tempting for me to think that all is well. I’m eating well, running every day, and my family are all fine. But what an unequal lockdown this is, with two of my work colleagues having lost family members to Covid 19, domestic abuse under lockdown making life intolerable for many, and our frontline and key workers putting their lives on the line every morning when they head off to work.
I am sure that if you own a business then you share our concerns about what happens after the lockdown restrictions are relaxed, but as I said in my previous communication, let’s let today’s troubles be enough for today.
However your experience of these strange times, I hope this e-mail finds you and your family and colleagues well. If we can help with anything right now, whether for you or your family or your business, then don’t hesitate to get in touch. You’ll find us more than ready to help.
Until next time
With Best Wishes
Ray Crudgington
Managing Partner
Grant Saw Solicitors LLP