Despite the many legal issues brought forward by the pandemic, the legal profession has not been immune to economic harm from COVID-19.
“I was sweating,” said Simon Kent, founder of Kent Employment Law and part owner of Connect Family Law. “I was very worried about it. Absolutely very, very worried. But we survived it and are going to do fine.”
Kent said both law firms suffered a decline in business of about 20% in the early stages of the pandemic.
“Initially the phone stopped ringing for new business,” he said. “People didn’t know how bad the pandemic was going to be. And just like all things, people basically closed up their wallets.”
According to recent research by Burnaby-based legal technology firm Clio, 56% of nearly 500 U.S. legal professionals surveyed in April reported a significant decrease in people reaching out to their firms for legal help. Nearly 50% of more than 1,000 consumers surveyed by Clio reported they would put off a legal issue until the pandemic had subsided. That U.S.-based data tracks with anecdotal reports from lawyers in B.C.
“We’re seeing a significant increase in certain types of inquiries and then a significant decrease in others,” said Leena Yousefi, a family lawyer and the founder of YLaw Group.
Her firm received very few calls in the first weeks after B.C. declared a public health emergency. But then the freeze in demand for legal services began to thaw.
“We started seeing a lot of parents using COVID in a lot of situations as an excuse not to let the other parent see their children,” Yousefi explained. Her firm has also seen a surge of enquiries related to abusive relationships and domestic violence, and an increase in instances of unpaid child support due to COVID-19-related layoffs.
Kent says employment-related consultations at his firm doubled as the number of workers laid off in B.C. grew.
“A whole new area of employment law sort of evolved around this concept of putting a lot of employment relationships on hold, which is traditionally something that we don’t see as employment lawyers,” he explained.
Kent said activity at both of his firms is back to where it was pre-pandemic, with Kent Employment Law now fielding enquiries around dismissals that have flowed from earlier layoffs.
“There definitely was a bit of a spike for me of people wanting to do their estate planning,” said Jonathan Vroom, a partner and business lawyer at North Shore Law LLP.
He added that, in the words of a realtor he spoke to, real estate law has been “surprisingly not awful,” with transactions to buy and sell properties still occurring. Vroom has also dealt with a lot of commercial tenants who can’t get their landlords to consider the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program, which offers forgivable loans to property owners who offer a rent reduction of at least 75% to their tenants in April, May and June.
“It doesn’t help that when the government announces a new program, often the details don’t yet exist. So the moment the government announces a new program, we start getting a flood of enquiries,” Vroom said.
Don Sihota, a partner and mergers and acquisitions lawyer with Clark Wilson LLP, has also received a lot of questions around landlord issues, employment and wills and estates.
“If you’re in a high-risk age group, you don’t want to leave your wills and estates planning and not do it when there’s this issue out there,” he said. “If you don’t deal with it now, it’s going to be a disaster if something happens to you. By disaster, meaning your business is going to fall into turmoil.”
The M&A market has slowed, with deals either stalled or delayed. But Sihota said he has no doubt M&A activity will resume, perhaps in the fall or in early 2021.
“I sense a huge demand from buyers and sellers that are still out there,” he said. “And when it does come back, it’s going to be very, very busy because there’s going to be pent-up activity that was just kind of on hold.”
Other practice areas could see increases in demand as B.C.’s economy reopens.
For example, Kent said he expects there could be a number of actions brought forward related to layoffs and employment issues once B.C. courts resume more regular operations.
In March, the BC Supreme Court adjourned civil and family matters scheduled on or before May 29, and made provisions for hearing only urgent and essential matters.
Certain matters that were adjourned can be scheduled for a hearing via telephone conference, but there was a backlog in B.C. courts before COVID-19, and the pandemic has exacerbated that problem.
“As soon as they open the gates, it’s going to be a gong show,” said Yousefi.
