At the beginning of the year, for U.K. companies and their lawyers, 2020 inevitably involved Brexit preparedness. Having spent significant time, money and energy during 2019 making preparations for a potential no-deal scenario, many felt that, while still a significant priority for the year, it was a challenge that was relatively under control, albeit most acknowledged that there remained some aspects of Brexit which would remain (on the Rumsfeld continuum) as ‘unknown unknowns’.
By March, as the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic started to become clear, Brexit was no longer dominating the news cycle. What the U.K., and the world, was facing was whole new level of crisis.