#10 The Legal Profession This Week - The Rise Of Long-Term Remote Working

#10 The Legal Profession This Week - The Rise Of Long-Term Remote Working​

Covid-19 and the Rise of Flexible and Long-Term Remote Working Arrangements

Ashurst is hiring a new global head for its flexible resourcing platform, The Reach, as it plans to scale up the business. The Reach was launched by Ashurst in 2019 through a partnership with managed services providers Cognia Law and Elevate, allowing the firm to access a flexible talent pool of 30,000 individuals (The Lawyer). The firm points out that Covid-19 has boosted the need for flexible talent within corporates, with the unit providing specialists mainly around financial services, construction and industrial relations.

On a similar note, global powerhouse Clifford Chance has recently approved a long-term UK remote working policy (The Lawyer). The firm’s employees will be expected to be in office for a minimum of 50 per cent of their hours. Other firms are also finalising flexible measures. For example, in March, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer phased a new agile policy which would allow its UK workers to work from home up to 50 per cent of the time. Other Magic Circle players, such as Linklaters and Allen & Overy, have implemented similar remote working arrangements for its UK staff.

The UK Litigation Funding Market Hits £2bn

Assets for the UK’s litigation funding market hit £2bn for the first time in 2020, rising 100 per cent from the amount that was recorded in 2017. Litigation funding “is the practice where a third party unrelated to the lawsuit provides capital to a plaintiff involved in litigation in return for a portion of any financial recovery from the lawsuit.” (Lex Shares) Quoting Eileen Bransteen, a New York Supreme Court Justice, the increased appeal for litigation funding flows from the argument that litigation funding allows lawsuits to be decided on their merits, and “not based on which party has the deeper pockets or stronger appetite for protracted litigation.”

Geraldine Elliott, the head of RPC’s commercial litigation group, noted that “an economic downturn tends to increase litigation, so litigation funders could be one of the incidental beneficiaries of the pandemic.” (The Lawyer) Experts note that there are three main factors to this exponential growth in the UK’s litigation funding market.

Firstly, Harbour Litigation Funding, the world’s largest privately-owned litigation funder, highlights that the increased activity in the funding market has been fuelled by the rise in engagement from law firms, coupled with clients’ growing awareness of third-party funding as a tool (The Lawyer). For instance, last year, global law firm DLA Piper gave its clients access to an exclusive £150 million litigation funding pool (Law.com).

Secondly, with the Covid-19 pandemic rapidly shifting the change to working online or remotely,, data-related litigation cases are predicted to take centre stage. This is particularly likely as the market awaits the result of Lloyd v Google in the Supreme Court in light of ‘claimant-friendly’ decisions recently handed down by the Supreme Court in Uber BV & Ors v Aslam & Ors.

In the latter case, it was held that Uber drivers are considered ‘workers’ under the Employment Rights Act 1996, entitled to appropriate employment benefits such as paid holidays and national minimum wage. In contrast, Lloyd v Google involved a case brought by consumer rights advocate, Richard Lloyd, alleging that Google had breached its duties as a data controller under the Data Protection Act 1998. The claim was brought as a ‘representative action’ under Rule 19.6 of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR). Through Rule 19.6, the action is brought on behalf of a defined class of individuals who share the same interest in the claim. If the Supreme Court allows this new form of damages and class action litigation, this could cause a surge in group action claims in several areas, especially cybersecurity and data usage (City A.M).

Finally, there is a predicted surge in the volume of disputes arising from insolvencies once government support for businesses, such as the furlough scheme and moratorium on winding-up orders, lapses and restrictions on insolvency actions are lifted (The Lawyer). The full range of insolvency protection from the economic impact of Covid-19 is detailed in the UK Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020.

‘Business as usual’ – the notable deals and cases which went ahead this week:

The UK is seeing a ‘blitz’ of IPOs from promising tech startups (Forbes). For instance, Latham & Watkins represented Dacktrace plc, a Cambridge-based cyber security company, on its London Stock Exchange (“LSE”) IPO last week, raising £165 million (Latham & Watkins Website). With an opening value of £1.7bn, Darktrace’s listing represents the biggest new technology listing since Deliveroo’s flop a month ago. Darktrace’s shares jumped by 44 per cent on its London Stock Exchange debut on Friday (Financial Times).

Similarly, Herbert Smith Freehills (“HSF”) is advising Keefe, Bryette & Woods (“KBW”) on the £365 million IPO of PensionBee Group plc on the LSE (HSF Website). PensionsBee is a leading online pensions provider in the UK, with approximately 137,000 Active Customers and £1.6 billion of assets under administration as of March 2021 (Mirage). PensionBee is due to list later this month.