A Carlisle lawyer has explained how his army background helped him to ensure his clients still had access to the legal system throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

While many businesses have been working night and day in preparation for return to business, Carlisle law firm Wragg Mark-Bell may have been one of the few already prepared for the unexpected.

The company had plans for the whole workforce to work remotely, and operations director Nick Kennon puts it down to his extensive Army Reserves background.

Alongside his role at Wragg Mark-Bell, he is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserves, currently the Commanding Officer of Fourth Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment.

“The Army teaches you to think ahead and always “what if”", Nick said.

"We already had a business continuity plan in case we lost the office due to fire or a power cut.

“I started working on how to run an office in case of a major outbreak from early February as I knew it was coming, and when it arrived, we were able to transition to remote working with reduced staff largely without disruption."

Nick explained that the firm has been rotating its workforce, making best use of the Government's furlough scheme.

“Of our 23 members of staff, at the height we had three in the office, three mixing between the office, court and working remotely, three working entirely remotely, and the remainder on furlough.

We rotated furloughed staff and are using the flexible furlough scheme to best effect.”

For a solicitor, working remotely is not as simple as conducting meetings over the phone.

The way they represented clients at police stations and the courts had to be approached differently.

“A key example is interviews with clients by the police at the police station; many but not all, had to move to a remote way of working ultimately using Microsoft Teams," Nick explained.

“It was not easy to get there as none of the various agencies before had previously had to use a platform to interact so there were a number of individual ways of working that had to be coordinated. It was the same at Crown Court.

“And then there was a spike in conveyancing when people were allowed to view houses by asking the owners to step outside whilst they looked round.

“We were surprised how many people proceeded to buy houses that way. Strange times, but by weekly monitoring of the trends we were able to react rapidly so there was no delay in service provision.”

During the Covid-19 crisis, Wragg Mark-Bell underwent an annual audit and passed with flying colours, meaning it can keep its coveted Lexcel accreditation - a nationally recognised award for the quality of its work.

Now the Castle Street-based company is in the process of bringing staff members back into the offices, and starting to conduct appointments face-to-face - with all the recommended safety guidelines being observed.

The new ways of working may stay in place in some form or another, but the company now knows everything can run smoothly in the event of a second wave or a similar nationwide shutdown.

Nick said: “For the return to work we are conducting a careful overview of market trends and bringing key staff back as our clients require them, fully utilising the size of the buildings and a robust social distancing and cleaning regime to make it safe to do so.

“Client service is our priority and we have delivered this throughout to our client base without interruption throughout.

“And for those who prefer face to face with their solicitor – office appointments are back in a Covid-compliant format.

"That is how most of our clients wish to operate as we sell ourselves as approachable and down to earth.

"In that sense things are not getting back to normal as people are still scared and reluctant to attend anywhere they don’t need to and they don’t need to as we can see them virtually or deal remotely. However, I would say people’s appetite for house buying locally seems to be getting back to normal as we are busy – we are local market leaders so will see it first.

Nick feels that some of the virtual ways of working are here to stay in courts and police stations.

“I think police stations and courts will use video technology in some cases but the main way of the justice system is face to face, both historically and also because physical presence seems to count," he said.

“That said, this has proved virtual works when necessity demands and necessity may become more financially linked in future.”