More and more work: That is what the year 2020 produced as a side effect of the pandemic. The team of three in-house attorneys at Toyota Material Handling USA Inc. took on significantly more assignments during the year of COVID-19. The day-to-day legal work of preparing contracts and due diligence on mergers and acquisitions were compounded by the need to support human resources in helping employees to work securely from home, and in assisting government relations.

The strained Toyota Material Handling legal team was in good company. According to a recent report by Thomson Reuters, 58% of legal departments found themselves with increased workloads throughout the pandemic, and 29% of legal departments saw their budgets cut in 2020.