The coronavirus presents an unprecedented challenge and we are all going to experience a period of disruption and uncertainty. DWF is open for business in every location where we operate and we wanted to provide reassurance over the steps we have taken to prioritise the health and wellbeing of our people and their families, whilst continuing to provide the service our clients expect.

Our business continuity plan

DWF has a well-established business continuity plan. Teams from Risk, IT, HR, Finance, Facilities and Client Development have been meeting regularly to identify steps we needed to take to prioritise the wellbeing of our people, clients and other stakeholders and protecting our ability to continue supporting clients.

We have been following the guidance provided by Governments and healthcare authorities in each location. This means that where a Government has advised that people should work from home if they can, we are implementing this guidance. We are also ensuring that if our people need to work from one of our offices that it is safe to do so and we are adhering to the guidance provided by Governments including relevant risk assessments, office configuration, and increased hygiene measures.

DWF has been supportive of agile working in our business for a number of years and we are well placed to cope with the current situation. Since the pandemic started we have extended our remote working capability through the provision of additional laptops to staff who previously used desktop computers and by increasing capacity to support remote connections by laptop and to our web-based cloud desktop. In preparation of the need to move more of our people to homeworking, we conducted a number of exercises where whole teams in critical functions have worked from home to test the response. These exercises were successful and we have been able to manage the larger numbers of people now needing to work from home. We are also continually assessing the requirements of our people who are working remotely to ensure they have the correct equipment to do so safely.

More than 90% of our people are equipped to work from home, with an average of around 75% working from home each day. In addition to our business continuity preparations, we have also taken a number of decisions designed to mitigate risk to people where possible. This has included, cancelling all events and meetings above a certain number of people and restricting all but the most essential business travel.

Working arrangements during the COVID-19 outbreak – service and communication by email (DWF Law LLP, DWF Costs Ltd and DWF Advocacy Ltd)

In view of the continuing disruption to working arrangements and until further notification, service of claim forms, application notices and all other court documents and contractual notices should be made only by email. 

In the current circumstances and again until further notification, we cannot guarantee that any attempted service of documents or contractual documents by post, courier, DX, fax or any means other than email will be either received or dealt with.

All other correspondence should likewise be sent via email.

How DWF can help you

The coronavirus is going to present significant operational and commercial challenges to every business. Every company will face difficult decisions. In addition to making our own business continuity preparations, we have also been preparing our teams to ensure we are ready to apply our expertise to support our clients however and wherever that may be needed. Please visit our COVID-19 Hub for our latest insights on the impact of coronavirus. This is what we do, we provide proactive advice to support our clients in their time of need. Please allow us to help.

At DWF, one of our core values is Better Together and we have seen a fantastic response from our people, living our values and coming together to support each other and our clients.

We will keep you updated with any significant updates or changes in our approach and of course, we wish you, your colleagues, friends and family well during this time.

To read our 'Returning to the Office' response please click here.

If you have any specific questions please speak to your usual DWF contact or fill in the form below.