Simon Shooter, Bird & Bird's international commercial group head

Three weeks ago, Bird & Bird's international commercial group head, Simon Shooter, developed COVID-19 symptoms. With the support of his family, and his friends in medicine, he has since been recuperating in self-isolation at home.

The coronavirus pandemic has torn through the world, touching lives across the globe, and, like most sectors, the legal industry is feeling the impact of both the professional and personal toll wrought by the pandemic. 

Like a number of firms, Bird & Bird closed its London HQ over two weeks ago, and staff have been working remotely en masse ever since. Shooter talks to Law.com International from his home in Gloucester. 

Stressing that no two people with the misfortune of contracting the virus will have exactly the same symptoms, Shooter describes his own experience of the past three weeks, the physical and mental challenges he's had to confront, and how he has managed to remain upbeat and working despite the sapping nature of the disease. 

"You've got to listen to your body."

Shooter explains his frustration at not being able to identify the exact moment he contracted the virus. But he speculates that, although he hadn't travelled abroad, he did take "the tube everyday" before the lockdown, and had suffered "a bout of insomnia the week before" which may have left his immune system affected. 

What is certain, however, is the pain and inertia he battled during the ensuing three weeks. He describes days where he "just lay in bed". He developed pleurisy, which causes difficulty breathing, and is "coming to the end of a very unpleasant chest infection".

"No one should underestimate how affecting this is. If you've had a bad bout, you can guarantee you will be weak."

Since contracting the virus, Shooter says he has lost 18 lbs.

"Together with the fevers, your body takes a hell of a pounding while you're recuperating." He adds: "You're given expectations which are not correct for everyone at all – rough guidelines. You ask yourself: "Am I going to get better.

But despite his symptoms, he has been working and keeping busy in other ways. 

"The biggest impact on work is that there are a number of times, when it's raging, it's like someone has taken the batteries out of you – you power down." 

He explains that, when the fever is running high, "your mental capacity, your intellectual alacrity and memory gets a pounding". 

"You're doing well, but not as well as you think you are," he explains. "You have fogged up thinking, and it has a real effect on how diligently you work."

He gives the example of fighting a note for a client in a contract review: "I was about three-quarters of the way through it. But at about five o'clock, I conk out. I can't do any more. So I just left it."

He describes his clients as being "fantastically sensible and accommodating". 

When asked why he chose to work instead of taking time off to recover, he says he "never felt there was a point where I was putting my health at risk," adding: "It was a judgement call. Your symptoms and how they affect you are utterly unpredictable. But you've got to listen to your body."

One essential means for "channeling boredom" has been to make himself useful while at home. 

"I've never been ill for more than two or three days in a row. Now I've been ill for three weeks. Without keeping busy, I'd start climbing the walls!" 

He describes how keeping in close contact with his colleagues and juniors has been helpful for both himself and the firm. 

"Our juniors must be very worried. We're inevitably going to see a reduction in work levels, and juniors will worry they won't get the education and support that they would in the workspace. So I do one to two hours' tuition to the troops a week."

He adds: "We need to keep interacting with all staff to make sure they're safe, happy and feel a part of everything."

Read more:

Remote Working and Mental Health: Law Firms' New Challenge