Life in Lockdown - part 2

This week I got to catch up with David Pritchard, Head of Marketing at Sintons LLP, to find out how the firm has responded to the Coronavirus outbreak and how the business has adapted to the change in operating and the shift to home working. I also spoke to David about how he has personally adapted to ‘Life in Lockdown’ and what learns he will take away from this experience.

Sintons is one of the leading law firms in the North of England which has regionally and often nationally renowned expertise in a number of key practice areas. Founded in 1896, Sintons is a full-service firm which offers a wide range of legal services to businesses, organisations and individuals across the North East, including York and the surrounding areas, throughout the UK and further afield. Multi award-winning Sintons was named law firm of the year at the Northern Law Awards 2019.

Thank you so much for your time David! I hope you are keeping well in lockdown! I’m really keen to catch up with you to find out how you’re finding the changes in working and how lockdown life has affected the business in general.

So, tell me about Sintons... how are things going and how has the firm’s performance been throughout the COVID-19 outbreak?

Undeniably these are challenging times for businesses in general but Sintons has continued to offer business as usual to our clients. Our clients will always be our absolute priority and we are aware that many of them need us now more than ever. Our team have remained contactable at all times and have made use of video conferencing to help continue the strong relationships we build with clients, which we are well known for.

Areas of the business like our employment and corporate teams, who have advised businesses on their options around the Government Coronavirus business support schemes, have been particularly busy. Our private client team too has seen a huge surge in demand as people look to make provision for their families and loved ones for the future through making a will or lasting power of attorney. We will continue to support our clients in every way we can through our legal services, as well as using our channels of communication to provide relevant and timely advice.

Is there a particular innovation which your organisation has made as result of the crisis that you are particularly proud of?

Since lockdown was enforced in late March, we took the decision to be as communicative as possible, sending out relevant content which addressed and hopefully answered some of the big questions people had, particularly around issues like the Job Retention Scheme and what steps to take if your business is unexpectedly in trouble. Our whole fee earning team has really stepped up to embrace this and they have really bought in to our innovative communication strategy. We have launched a COVID-19 Information and Advice Portal on our website and many of our fee-earners have recorded podcasts from home, and are helping to write content in reaction to developments as soon as they happen. This team approach and joint way of working has helped us significantly in our marketing efforts.

Are there any working strategies you have implemented so far which you have found to be particularly effective?

We have made excellent use of the technology we have had at Sintons for some time by taking as much online as possible. Our upcoming employment ‘Procedural Policies and Pitfalls’ event, held in association with Reed HR, is usually one of our best-attended events of the year, but this year we are going to hold it online. Already, we have a phenomenal number of attendees signed up, who will be able to access exactly the same information but by video conference instead of in person. To help accommodate the huge number of enquiries received by our employment team, we have introduced a weekly Q&A session held on Teams, which is attracting many questions. Our podcasts are another very successful part of our strategy, with each podcast attracting thousands of listeners, which is absolutely fantastic and evidence that we are giving people the advice they want and need.

How are you overcoming the challenges of communicating with your team?

We have a strong relationship within our marketing team so communicating is very easy. In addition to the traditional use of phone call and email, we are making use of Zoom and Teams for meetings, which is working really well. We are successfully doing our business planning this way and using technology is quickly becoming the ‘normal’ and something we will use to keep in touch whenever we need to, post-pandemic.

Have you had any great ‘working from home’ successes?

Sintons has invested significantly in its systems and IT infrastructure and ensured the team was comfortable using video conferencing for some time. For this reason, while some firms may have had to start planning from scratch when Coronavirus hit, for us we were already geared up for home working. So, the fact that we were set up for this from very early on in this crisis was a success in itself.

The engagement of our lawyers throughout the firm in helping to generate high quality content has also been a success for us. Despite the challenges of high-volume caseloads and the fact that home working was a new concept for many of them, they have really gone out of their way to help in our marketing efforts.

So moving on to you…. What methods are you using to stay motivated?

These are, of course, very challenging times but the motivation is to continue to keep the profile of the firm as high as it can be, particularly so soon after our rebrand. Our new brand identity was launched only days before social distancing measures were introduced, so through our many means of communication, we have also helped to showcase the new Sintons brand.

What have been the challenges, if any, that you’ve personally faced when working from home?

In all honesty it’s been seamless and because we were so well set up to work from home from such an early stage, it quickly became the new normal. Communicating with colleagues has not been a problem as we have so many channels to use, and there has been nothing that we have been unable to resolve remotely thanks to our great systems.

You mentioned earlier that you had created a COVID-19 portal with advice for businesses and individuals about steps they can take to get through the current challenging times. Tell me more…

We realised very early on that people, be they business owners, employees or individuals, had so many questions about what was happening and what they should do, that we wanted to respond in a clear and helpful manner. The creation of our portal was devised as a resource for people to use to find the answers they want and need. It contains Q&A content, articles from our lawyers, podcasts and other communications, and is constantly updated as new developments take place. We are very proud to have taken a lead on this.

Finally - If there is one piece of advice you could give another company or employee at this time, what would it be?

Keep your profile high and communicate! But be sure to know your audience and post relevant content that they will want to read, and which will be of benefit to them.

Thanks so much David for your time! Hopefully I’ll see you very soon at one of our next employment seminars, once we are all back to normal working!

If you would like to register for Sintons’ next employment seminar on ‘Procedural Pitfalls and Pointers’ which will be hosted online on Thursday 18th June 2020 - please get in touch via the link - www.sintons.co.uk/events/procedural-pitfalls-and-pointers/

The seminar is FREE to join and the information is so valuable, with lots of great information and advice to take away!

#KeepBritainWorking aims to build a movement of positivity to help share, connect and inspire employers, workers and the country.

If you or your business would like to get involved in the #KeepBritainWorking campaign, please check out www.keepbritainworking.com or follow us on Twitter @KeepBritWorking