How can SME law firms prepare for the impact of Brexit?

Gary Shaw, group commercial director at Accesspoint, says the subtle changes that may occur over the next few years will present challenges and opportunities for SME law firms.

Over the last six months much focus has been around Covid-19 and how it has affected our day-to-day business and how we go about daily life. So, now let’s re-focus and turn our attention back to the major ‘crisis’ that seemed to take over all of our lives before the pandemic happened – Brexit.

Changes brought about by the UK’s exit from the European Union will come into full effect from the beginning of the year 2021 and these changes will without doubt impact SME law firms, specifically those dealing with employment law.

What might help these firms stay on top of the Brexit challenges?

Although a deal or no deal Brexit may not cause any immediate nor drastic changes to employment law itself, the subtle changes that may occur over the next few years could still present challenges and opportunities, which could lead to many business owners and employees seeking specialist employment legal advice. Being prepared for this window of opportunity will undoubtedly be advantageous.

Think about your first point of contact – most likely your website. Does it maximise your market awareness and fulfil the need for a prospect to visit? Is it visually and functionally able to stand out and attract attention to beat your competition? The foundation of your website should be a clean, to the point layout with simple navigation tools and up-to-date content on relevant legal changes to the law, offering advice, knowledgeable guidance and a clear call to action – go the extra mile and push your websites full potential and consider exploring different web integrations.

Smart web integrations will provide your firm with a joined-up approach. They can ease the burden of data gathering and also provide valuable insights into your clients’ digital journey and demographics, which will allow you to maximise your marketing opportunities. Also, they can send client enquiries straight into your practice management system – while automatically validating the enquiry against existing entities and creating a prospect/opportunity and sending it directly into your designated solicitors inbox. This guarantees your firm doesn’t miss out on any opportunities presented by Brexit-related queries and ensures that your prospects and clients receive a fast response, which promotes a high level of client engagement.

Additionally, your website could be used to overcome obstacles that working from home may bring, such as onboarding new clients. Flexible workflows are available now and can be adapted to your firm’s requirements with data fields housed within your case management system and helps clients self-start the process remotely through a user-friendly web form. Once submitted, clients and matters are auto-created by importing the valuable information completed by the client into the case management data fields, ready for processing – making processing data faster and more accurate and, ultimately, opening the door to drive more employment law cases for your firm in a much more efficient way.

It’s also worth mentioning that the changes in law could affect how your firm handles personal data sent from the EU. Explore the idea of adding a portal to your mix – and don’t get left behind. The future of portals is promising and is set to become the new way to connect and communicate with both clients and colleagues within your firm – providing your firm with a far safer hub to stay protected and compliant in transferring personal data. Email is set to become history.

Firms have various tools at their fingertips developed to provide themselves with the best foot forward, but also their clients with the best possible start on their legal journey – so stay prepared and enjoy exploring the new times ahead.