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Adapting to the New Normal

on Friday, 04 September 2020.

As children return to school perhaps life will begin to feel slightly more 'normal'.

On the other hand, for some, particularly those who are key workers, your working patterns may not have changed drastically. As lawyers based in city centre offices, We have had to adapt quickly to new ways of working.

Our Workload

The Family Law team at VWV have continued to work hard during the pandemic and throughout the government lockdown. We continue to service our existing family clients and are still welcoming lots of new clients.

Many of our new enquiries have related directly to coronavirus (COVID-19), for example we received over 700 calls within 24 hours relating to child arrangement issues after the Government announced a national lockdown. We are pleased that we had the systems in place and the expert legal advisers on hand to deal with this huge number of enquiries.

How Have We Adapted?

  • Our Offices - All of our five offices around the country closed to the public in March and the majority of our lawyers have been working from home. Thankfully, as a firm, we were ready to work from home immediately and whilst we have certainly had to reflect and adapt our working practices, we have done so without issue and importantly without any interruption to our clients. We remain working from home, however, arrangements are being made for us to return to the office in the future, when it is safe to do so.

  • Contacting our Clients - Traditionally, meetings were conducted in person or by telephone. Now, we frequently host meetings with our clients via video call. This allows us to have 'face to face' meetings with our national and international clients without the time and expense of long-distance travel. Furthermore, our lawyers are working more flexibly and we are therefore able to arrange meetings with clients outside of standard working hours, at a time that suits them. This includes early mornings and later evenings, as well as some weekends (upon request). We understand the importance of flexibility and convenience for our clients, particularly as their standard day may look very different now.

  • The Courts - During lockdown, in person attendance at court has, in most cases, been replaced with remote hearings conducted via platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. The hearings that we have attended have worked well for our clients and has allowed access to justice during these difficult times. Attending court can be a daunting experience and whilst the same formalities still apply to remote hearings, many clients feel more comfortable attending court via a video call. We anticipate that traditional hearings will return however we hope that some of the remote and electronic ways of working will continue where appropriate.

  • Environmental Impact - Reducing our carbon footprint is high on our list of priorities at VWV. By dispensing with the usual office commute and working electronically (thus reducing the amount of paper we are using), we hope that this will have a positive impact on the environment and our practices in the future.

PC coronavirus

The Future

At this stage, it is still too early to know precisely what the future will look like. However, as a business and as a team that is looking to grow and develop, we welcome the adaptations that we have made. We hope that some of the positive, innovative changes that we have made will be here to stay.

In the meantime, we remain working flexibly and welcome new clients who need advice in all areas of family law.


If you wish to speak with one of expert family lawyers, please contact Sam Hickman in our Family Law team on 07464 544 828, or complete the form below.

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