Australian Law Firms Share and Cooperate on COVID-19 Response
The chief operating officers at Australian and Global firms in the country are routinely emailing each other with updates on their latest responses to the coronavirus crisis and with questions on what to do next.
April 20, 2020 at 02:36 PM
4 minute read
Law firms typically compete to win clients and engage in battle on opposite sides of a dispute. But in Australia, several firms have been working together to share their operational responses to the COVID-19 crisis.
The chief operating officers at Australian firms such as Clayton Utz, MinterEllison, Allens and Gilbert + Tobin, and at global firms that include Clyde & Co, King & Wood Mallesons and Norton Rose Fulbright, are routinely emailing each other with updates on their latest responses to the coronavirus crisis and with questions on what to do next.
The informal group has shared details on remote working, managing staff that are still working on site, staffing issues and the various IT applications firms are using.
While firms are deploying a range of apps and social media for meetings and communication and to manage workflow, Gilbert + Tobin chief operating officer Sam Nickless says email has proven to be highly effective with the group.
"I think that's been quite an efficient way to do it because we haven't had to schedule times or do anything like that. People have just flipped thoughts out or questions out when they've needed to," he said.
The thread came about in early March when Australian firm Clayton Utz had a coronavirus scare, after the grandmother of an employee's wife was found to have contracted COVID-19, sparking fears that the wife and the employee may also have contracted the virus. Staff at Clayton Utz's Sydney office were told to work from home while the employee's wife awaited test results.
Upon hearing the news, Nickless emailed staff at Gilbert + Tobin to ask if they had any close family members who worked at Clayton Utz or if they had recently been working in an office with anyone from Clayton Utz. It turned out that several staff members had partners who worked at Claton Utz and one staff member's father worked there.
"That just threw it into absolute stark relief how in this industry there are so many connections," Nickless said. "It became pretty clear that as soon as one firm had an issue and had to deal with it, the ripples through to the rest of us moved very quickly."
He quickly gathered together all the email addresses of other firms' COOs and got in touch with them. While it started as a quick way to reach each other if another similar scare were to take place, it quickly morphed into a forum where people shared ideas about remote working and it has continued into what Nickless calls the "resilience stage" of the crisis.
The group confines itself to the noncompetitive aspects of the legal business and doesn't discuss client work.
"It's been a real help just to know where others are at," Nickless said, noting that COOs have to make quick decisions and convince firm partners that those are the right decisions. "It is always helpful in that decision-making for partners to know what other firms are doing and to have real facts on that."
As the COO of an Australian firm, Nickless says it has also been useful to get a perspective on the crisis response in other jurisdictions from some of the global firms.
"It's sort of informal. Many of us have never met face-to-face, or even over voice," he said. "There's a real generosity of spirit of people coming back with advice or ideas quickly and sharing things that they feel they can."
The number of daily new COVID-19 cases in Australia is declining and Prime Minister Scott Morrison said last week that restrictions aimed at halting the spread of the virus could be eased in four weeks' time.
But first, the government wants to put in place increased testing, elevate tracing of cases to an "industrial" level, and ensure there are strong local response capabilities that would enable any hot spots to be locked down.
As of Monday, there were 6,619 known COVID-19 cases in Australia, up by eight from the day before.
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllLawyers Among Those Convicted as Hong Kong High Court Sentences 45 Activists to Prison
Law Firms Mentioned
Trending Stories
- 1Read the Document: 'Google Must Divest Chrome', DOJ Says, Proposing Remedies in Search Monopoly Case
- 2Voir Dire Voyeur: I Find Out What Kind of Juror I’d Be
- 3When It Comes to Local Law 97 Compliance, You’ve Gotta Have (Good) Faith
- 4Legal Speak at General Counsel Conference East 2024: Virginia Griffith, Director of Business Development at OutsideGC
- 5Legal Speak at General Counsel Conference East 2024: Bill Tanenbaum, Partner & Chair, AI & Data Law Practice Group at Moses Singer
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250