Egan predicts more bankruptcy and insolvency work for law firms
The managing partner at WeirFoulds LLP predicts more bankruptcy and insolvency work for law firms and says a primary goal for his management team in 2022 is to ensure associates are not stretched too far and are prioritizing their mental health. In an interview about upcoming trends in the legal profession, securities and corporate lawyer Wayne Egan says the firm will cautiously focus on expansion and confront the challenges of working remotely while building connections with colleagues and clients.
2022 will also see lawyers drilling down on client satisfaction by being responsive and proactive, says Egan.
Many businesses have endured financial blows from COVID, and Egan says many companies that have tried to hold on through some difficult periods may end up having to file for bankruptcy as the pandemic ends.
Lawyers were busier in 2021, and Egan says clients focused almost exclusively on their business and pursuing legal matters. The firm expanded during the pandemic, and he says the challenge was finding ways to service clients and ensure high satisfaction. “We’ve added lawyers in a number of the areas where we needed additional help because we were so busy.”
Egan says the firm took some aggressive hiring moves in the fall of 2020 and employed students and external lateral lawyers to either add to established practice areas or create new ones. “We got better at onboarding people as best we could through all of that.”
He says the markets were strong in the firm’s securities practice because clients raised money, so there were many financings. The firm hired lawyers to join its general corporate group and expanded the practice area. While there was not a tonne of M&A activity, he expects that may change in 2022.
Litigation was active, and Egan says the firm’s construction group was busy advising consultants and companies involved in projects. In addition, due to employment departures from COVID or business-related issues around the pandemic, he says the WeirFoulds employment and labour group has also been busy.
Egan says prioritizing lawyers’ mental health is easier said than done, but the management remains cautious and aims to provide tools and services to help lawyers maintain their mental health.
Over the last few years, a relatively significant number of associates have joined the firm, and Egan says this helped new employees relate to and help each other. “A bunch of people are in the same boat, and they lean on each other a fair bit and have developed informal chat groups to help each other get acclimatized into the firm and settle in.”
Hiring lawyers when employees are not physically in the same office is challenging, Egan says, and the methods used onboard in a virtual world are good but not perfect. “We have these people that we’ve only seen on Zoom and communicated with by email, text, or phone.”
With the ongoing challenges of remote work, particularly for new lawyers and staff, Egan says it is challenging to develop relationships or bonds. Still, people have found other ways to successfully build connections while not sitting in the same space together. “You have to work hard at it,” Egan says, “and I look forward to the chance to be able to do it in the traditional ways where you could go out for lunch or a drink and get to know people that way.”
The firm solidified how to work remotely in 2020 and hoped to return to the office in 2021. While there are no solid plans to return to the office in 2022, Egan says the management will monitor public health directives before making any decisions. “We were hopeful that during 2021, we could have an opportunity to return more people to the office and develop the things that we do when we’re all together and working as teams, and that got side-tracked, especially in December.”
Lawyers are working to maintain connections in the virtual world, but Egan says people are fatigued by Zoom and virtual meetings. “We have to find other ways, and hopefully, our public health situation continues to improve, and restrictions get removed or lessened so we can be together and do things face to face.”
