Back in those halcyon days of lockdown 1.0 *sarcastic cough*, as the schools were closing, families were separated (for the first time) and there was a collective moment of “oh crap”; I can remember having real clarity of thought around what LexRex’s role should be for our lawyer clients and the broader profession. I could see exactly what was coming, and how the corresponding lack of confidence that lockdown would cause was going to significantly hurt lawyers and law firms the width and breadth of the country.
I was very clear that we needed to down the sales tools, and instead look to how we could help law firms to deal with the questions they were struggling to answer at every point during the unravelling of the crisis. We did this through our series of webinars, LexRex: Trusted Partner.
Every fortnight I met with our law firm client leaders to ask them what their immediate top 3 challenges were. This insight, along with Simon McCrum’s excellent
covid survey series provided me with the answers I needed to create really powerful and engaging content that was seen by lawyers across the UK.
During the series, which ran from 23rd April through to Thursday 16th July we covered
CBILS and how law firms could access that particular type of finance,
critical cashflow management and what law firms would need to do to manage the predicted cash crunch,
converting WIP into cash,
creating a COVID-safe workplace, HR considerations for
bringing staff back into the office, internal comms and
keeping teams engaged and informed, and finally,
getting business development back on track. Looking back I feel really proud that we were able to deliver such useful content in a timely manner. Our partners were exceptional and gave their time readily, and I owe them my sincere thanks! The content remains exceptionally relevant and I would certainly recommend watchin the videos – all available via the links above. The only ones to come with a slight word of warning are the HR one (in particular) and CBILS one, as the advice contained may have been superseded.
We ended Trusted Partner on what felt like a justifiable high, a session all about business development. At that time, in July, lockdown was ending to some extent. Shops, libraries, swimming pools, gyms, hairdressers were all open again; and we were allowed to see our friends and families finally. Everything was so optimistic! Trusted Partner had, at that point, come to the end of its crisis-led life.
Of course, now we’re back in lockdown (although to a significantly lesser effect than the first time) and it feels right that we bring Trusted Partner back to life. This time around I think we all know what we’re doing a little bit more, and we understand the rhythm of lockdown business and the pain points.
We are also approaching Christmas (hurray!) and although we don’t know what that will look like in terms of who we can / can’t see, it is still a time for positivity and celebration. So sticking to the positivity theme, this time our Trusted Partner series is going to be presented by the
most excellent LexRex team. The sessions will follow their usual format, which is me interviewing our experts for 45 minutes, with live Q&A at the end.
We are going to kick off on Tuesday 2nd December at 1.00 pm with our media relations maestro, Sophie. During our session, we’ll be talking about how to identify target publications and making journalists your friends, what makes a great story, getting media-ready, measuring success and maximising your use of strong coverage within your broader marketing strategy.
We will follow with a session on 8th December by our digital expert Dan, and close with a session by our marketing guru Sarah on 15th December just in time for the Christmas break.
I really hope that Trusted Partner is as well received as last time around. Certainly we will be working hard to deliver insightful, helpful and expert advice – free of charge and at a time that works for as many people as possible.
I’m looking forward to seeing our Trusted Partner friends and clients, and to making new connections. I’m really tempted to say Happy Christmas right now, but I’ll stick to ‘see you in December’ for now.
You can book your place at the next Trusted Partner webinar and view all of our upcoming events
on our Eventbrite page.
Victoria.
