Ben Lowrey – Law firms face challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic, but also law firm opportunities as demand for legal services in some areas boom.
Lawyers globally are facing requests for urgent advice on businesses needing to deal with redundancy and other issues relating to employment law, health law, privacy, insurance and commercial law issues, senior law rights and other issues creates demands in an unprecedented upsurge in demand.
A LawFuel survey of some of the urgent issues developing with the COVID-19 virus shows that firms are being asked to provide a growing laundry list of questions relating to the pandemic from London to New York and Sydney to Singapore.
Among the issues are questions about positive testing for coronavirus to how to advise employees afraid of catching the virus at the office.
Law firms are quickly responding to the pandemic with a variety of resources and are creating multidisiciplinary task forces set up to deal with the issues arising from the pandemic.
Law Firm Opportunities
But within the crisis there lies opportunities for law firms who are looking at the both long and short-term impact of the pandemic which can develop demand for legal services in various areas of practice.
Lawyers are being asked to consider their employment contracts in terms of redundancy issues and ‘force majeure’ questions.
Firms are being asked to evaluate the insurance position relating to business interruption, workers compensation, casualty and other insurance issues affecting their business.
This has also meant assistance renegotiating commercial and credit arrangements, for instance, and ensuring businesses proactively engage with stockholders, creditors and other stakeholders to ensure that all legal and financial obligations are met.
But lawyers also face issues relating to privacy of medical records and their need to protect employees and contractors from infection.
In the US, the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPPA) means that there are liability issues for employers who discover that employees are sick but need to both proect their other employees and also the privacy of their workers.
With the COVID-19 epidemic, attorneys say businesses have a heightened duty to determine whether to direct staff to stay at home and that involves calibrating their investigations of workplace safety and confidential medical information about employees.
Firms indicate that their is some ‘pre-aggressive’ confidential questioning involving queries about any contact an employee may have with any known carrier of coronavirus or someone who has been exposed to it.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that employers do not have a duty to take the temperature of staff, but rather to base their decisions on what they know or should reasonably know.
A failure to handle the issue could be a negiligent retention, resulting in liability for the business.
Whatever the case, businesses need to stay aware of health and public announcements regarding COVID-19.
Further issues can arise under US law when an employee cannot come to work. Under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) employers must ensure their is compliance along with other State laws that may apply.
The FMLA requires employers with more than 50 employees within 75 miles of the company’s worksite to provide employees with a number of requirements that require careful attention, including job-protected, unpaid leave for specific medical and family reasons.
Employees who take FMLA leave are entitled to receive the same health coverage from their employers as they were before taking leave.
Demand for Health Care Lawyers
Demand for lawyers specializing in health care have exploded with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Apart from company clients health care facilities and others must also comply with legal requirements regarding ways they must comply with the virus where patients have shown symptoms of the virus.
But additional to the patients is the issue of protecting employees and the broader community, giving rise to an array of legal issues.
The evolving demands placed upon health care lawyers will continue to develop as the pandemic unfolds, but understanding the various issues as they interface with labor law and privacy issues will present a demand for legal clarity that will continue to challenge clients and lawyers alike.
The major firms, like DLA Piper with their COVID-19 resource center, Allen + Overy with their HR-related resource center, Shearman & Sterling’s COVID-19 resources and many more, including specialist firms working in health law, privacy, insurance and commercial law.
COVID-19 Privacy Issues
Privacy rights are another key area of intense legal interest. Privacy of health care issues are always important, even in normal times, but there are increasingly urgent and sensitive questions that arise in times like this.
The rights of individuals to their privacy is absolute, but it may be overridden in many jurisdictions where it is necessary and proportionate to the extraordinary circumstances such as those currently being experienced.
Data protection and legal rights relating patients permits the use of the information to be defined in a narrow manner, but in times of pandemic it may be that privacy lawyers are working to hinder the appropriate response to COVID-19.
Certainly privacy and data protection rights are being focused upon by law firms that are being asked to do so.
These concerns are global in nature and most jurisdictions strictly enforce the way in which health care data can and should be used.
In Europe, for instance, the European Data Protection Board and the ICO have both issued statements designed to assist employers and public bodies, so it is unlikely that organisations will find themselves in trouble for processing personal information where it is necessary to do so to treat patients or protect their staff.
The law firm opportunities that continue to arise out of the COVID-19 crisis will continue to evolve and develop, but it is clear that labor law, health and privacy concerns are among the paramount areas of demand from clients seeking assistance from their law firms.
Health & Privacy Law
Commercial law
Recently on LawFuel
- Mishcon de Reya – From Mandelson Brief to Battle StationsFor the law firm managing the defence of Peter Mandleson — Mishcon de Reya — today’s arrest represents a decisive escalation. What began as a high-profile reputation management brief has become one of the most significant criminal defence instructions in the firm’s history. Mishcon de Reya was first reported to be representing Mandelson by The Lawyer earlier this month, with Johanna Walsh (pictured) head of the firm’s white-collar crime and investigations practice, leading the team. The choice of Walsh, recognised by Legal 500 as a first-tier practitioner in serious and organised crime and by Who’s Who Legal as a Global Leader in Investigations, signalled from the outset that Mandelson and his advisers anticipated criminal exposure well before today’s arrest.
- Royal Reckoning – The Legal Anatomy of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s ArrestLawFuel Law Briefing – In what legal historians are already calling a watershed moment,… Read more: Royal Reckoning – The Legal Anatomy of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s Arrest
- How Brad Karp Lost the Plot: David Lat’s Forensic Dissection of the Paul Weiss Chairman’s DownfallBigLaw • Analysis The Karp Collapse: David Lat Dissects the Emails That Ended an… Read more: How Brad Karp Lost the Plot: David Lat’s Forensic Dissection of the Paul Weiss Chairman’s Downfall
- Legal Market Analysis – BigLaw’s Lateral Frenzy Is Reshaping the MarketThe Perkins Coie exodus in Seattle signals a permanent shift in the lateral hiring labor market that is changing the way top law firms operate. Lateral hiring is no longer just a tactic but an entire business model. When Perkins Coie lost lawyers to the announcement new offices for Morrison Foerster and McGuireWoods. It was in fact a signal of something structural. The departures came as Perkins Coie prepares for its merger with Ashurst, a combination that will create a global platform of roughly 3,000 lawyers. The timing reveals a pattern that now defines elite legal practice: mergers create opportunity, but they also create instability. And instability is oxygen for competitors. What we are witnessing is not a phase. It is the emergence of lateral acquisition as BigLaw’s dominant growth strategy. The New Economics: Why Firms Are Buying Revenue
- Clooneys Team Up with Legal Heavyweight Quinn Emanuel To Don the Cape for Global JusticeIn a world where celebrity philanthropy often feels like a scripted sequel, the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ) – that noble venture launched in 2016 by Amal Clooney, the hard-wired international barrister from Doughty Street Chambers, and her silver-screen spouse George – has rolled out its Justice Champion Program with all the flair of a premiere. Snagging litigation titan Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan as the inaugural partner, this initiative promises a pro bono powerhouse to shield at-risk women from discrimination and violence, while springing journalists from unjust detention for daring to ink the truth.
- Meet Scott Barshay – Paul Weiss’s New Chairman and Wall Street’s Most Prolific M&A LawyerFrom Cravath Star to Paul Weiss Chair Ben Thomson, LawFuel contributing writer In one… Read more: Meet Scott Barshay – Paul Weiss’s New Chairman and Wall Street’s Most Prolific M&A Lawyer
- Brad Karp’s Paul Weiss Exit – When ‘Once in a Lifetime’ Evenings Come Back to Haunt YouBrad Karp’s 18-year reign atop Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison ended Wednesday night not with a bang, but with a carefully worded statement about “distractions.” Translation: the Justice Department’s release of millions of Epstein-related documents last week made his position untenable faster than you can say “conflict of interest.” The emails paint a picture that’s more uncomfortable than a BigLaw associate’s billable hours target. In July 2015, Karp thanked Epstein for “an evening I’ll never forget,” describing it as “truly ‘once in a lifetime’ in every way, though I hope to be invited again.” Epstein’s response? A promise of “many many nights of unique talents” and assurances Karp would “be invited often.” Spoiler alert: those invitations are now exhibit A in why being Chair of a white-shoe law firm and socialising with convicted sex offenders don’t mix well.
- Anthropic’s Legal AI Plugin Triggers ‘SaaSpocalypse’ — $50B Wiped from Legal Tech StocksAnthropic’s Legal AI Plugin Exposes the Vulnerability of the Legal Tech Emperor’s Wardrobe The… Read more: Anthropic’s Legal AI Plugin Triggers ‘SaaSpocalypse’ — $50B Wiped from Legal Tech Stocks
- Legal AI’s First Reality Check: What the Claude Shock Means for Law FirmsAI-driven software stocks have slumped as investors suddenly re-price the risks and disruption posed by legal-focused models like Anthropic’s Claude. But for law firms, this is a reset, not a retreat, in the legal AI market. The money is shifting from “AI at any price” to “AI that can survive the coming copyright and compliance storm”—and that is clearly where serious firms should now be focusing. What Actually Happened in Markets The numbers are staggering. On 3 February 2026, a Goldman Sachs basket of US software stocks sank 6% in a single session—its biggest one-day decline since April’s tariff-fueled selloff. A parallel index of financial services firms tumbled almost 7%. The Nasdaq 100 Index fell as much as 2.4%. The trigger? Anthropic released new AI automation capabilities targeting legal, sales, marketing, and data analytics—sectors previously thought insulated from AI disruption. The carnage was immediate and global:
- Why Was Jeffrey Epstein Trying to Get BigLaw’s Brad Karp Into Augusta National?The Augusta Connection: Why Did Jeffrey Epstein Want to Get Brad Karp Into America’s… Read more: Why Was Jeffrey Epstein Trying to Get BigLaw’s Brad Karp Into Augusta National?
- BigLaw Pay – Taylor Wessing’s Top Rainmaker Banks the Legal Equivalent of a Premier League SalaryTaylor Wessing’s highest-earning partner managed to haul in a whopping £200,000 a week in the latest financial year — that’s roughly the same as a Premier League striker on a good bonus season. It highlights just how ludicrous top-end pay has become in London’s legal market. According to Law Society Gazette, the top-paid LLP member at Taylor Wessing managed to net that £200k-a-week haul as profits were dished out across the partnership. That kind of pay packet makes even the notorious Cravath scale seem almost modest. Sure, mid-market firms can cry “but we’re all about work-life balance,” but when your top partner’s annual take amounts to north of £10m, it’s hard not to feel the sting of disparity.
