Legal firm Fenech & Fenech Advocates has hit on ways to, not only operate well during the crisis, but also to innovate long-term.

“It has encouraged us to work at organising more and more virtual events which have united us as a group and as an organisation,” Managing Partner, Dr Ann Fenech said.

As a result, “a number of us have also had the opportunity of connecting with colleagues at work with whom we rarely actually connect.”

The restrictions imposed by the pandemic forced the firm to eliminate physical meetings and travel, with “the normal conference call substituted by Teams or Zoom calls”, as well as the introduction of webinars, to replace the traditional conferences and seminars which would have taken place in their stead.

The biggest challenge was reworking client relationships, which would usually be dependent on personal contact, and trying to find a solution even when the courts closed.

Indeed, it was only once the Court Registry reopened that the firm was able to devise a system where they could see clients – though they did this by “adhering to a strict appointment system to avoid anyone in our waiting rooms and by implementing all the safety recommendations including the required distancing, wearing of face masks, and hand sanitizers,” she said.

Looking ahead, the firm will return to the workplace, but “fully committed to continue to make use of the numerous technological aids” at its disposal, she said.

This will include the setting up of virtual meetings for overseas clients, which would lead to a decrease in the number of overseas work trips required.

“Speaking personally, travelling overseas takes up a great deal of my time. Substituting, where possible, these business trips with virtual meetings will certainly be a step in the right direction,” Dr Fenech asserted.

Moreover, the Managing Partner said she believed that all the staff “will return to work totally convinced that working from home is something which we will approach with a much broader mind.

“I believe that this pandemic has forced us to slow down our pace and to appreciate what really counts in life. That is a lesson in itself and worth remembering when we get back to the new normal,” she underlined. The future will also look different for some companies in the catering sector.

This is an extract of an article which appeared in the May edition of The Malta Business Observer