Anderson Strathern rolls out Business Resilience Unit in face of Covid-19 crisis
Anderson Strathern has launched a Business Resilience Unit in the face of the effect of the Covid-19 crisis to support clients and business leaders across Scotland. The unit draws together specialist lawyers from across the firm and is led by Anderson Strathern’s Chair, Bruce Farquhar, and Director Neil Amner, who is also a member of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce’s Business Advisory Group.
Supporting clients through Covid-19 and beyond
Anderson Strathern’s Business Resilience Unit is supported by an online Business Hub with a Covid-19 company checklist, webinars and a podcast series among related initiatives by the firm. Neil Amner, Director and Group Lead of Anderson Strathern’s Business Resilience Unit, said:
“The Covid-19 pandemic is challenging businesses in ways and to an extent we have never seen before. Being resilient, developing resilience, preparing for the ‘new normal’ and being able to adapt are all key for businesses at present. We’re here to help guide clients through the weeks and months ahead.”
Bruce Farquhar, Anderson Strathern’s Chair and Co-Lead of Anderson Strathern’s Business Resilience Unit, said:
“We know that Covid-19 has already developed into a global economic crisis, but we also know it’s a human crisis and so businesses need to respond on a human level with customers and their own people alike. During the pandemic we’ve been providing specialist advice directly and through our Business Hub, and there’s been real interest in that. Now we are helping our clients look ahead through the lens of the effects of Covid-19 and prepare for the impact of forthcoming areas such as climate change and Brexit.”
Anderson Strathern is active across the public, commercial and private client sectors and Farquhar added:
“Among others, we’re seeing a great deal of activity in areas such as employment law, private client services, commercial property, restructuring, insolvency, rural affairs, infrastructure and transport. What is commonplace is that everyone is feeling the impact of the current crisis in some way.”
Thought leadership and innovation
Anderson Strathern was the first Scottish legal firm to launch a dedicated Brexit Group and carried out an extensive piece of independent industry research in 2019 around how Brexit was impacting the Scottish business scene, resulting in the firm’s Brexit White Paper.
Managing Partner, Murray McCall, commented:
“As we did with Brexit, as a firm we quickly realised we needed to pivot into how we could support our clients and Scottish business leaders as the coronavirus pandemic started to take hold. As we know, this crisis touches each and every part of our economy and so we are pulling together to support clients around many aspects of the law – commercial contracts and property, restructuring, public sector challenges, and employment law to name a few.”
McCall interviewed leading Scottish business figure and entrepreneur, Dr Marie Macklin CBE, in the first of the firm’s podcast series in the wake of the pandemic. He added:
“What really came out of the interview with Marie Macklin was a sense of optimism that if we can collaborate in Scotland towards a more ethical purpose in mind, we can come out of the crisis a position of strength.”
Enterprise, collaboration and looking to the future
In the spirit of collaboration, we recently announced that we will be the only law firm and the first Gold Partner in Marie’s HALO Innovation and Enterprise Centre being established next year in our hometown of Kilmarnock. The aim is to establish HALO Kilmarnock at the heart of an International Enterprise community helping to build and grow Start-Up, SME and Scale Up businesses. There will, for example, be 110 desks on the Enterprise floor for start-up companies and other innovative businesses from the Energy, Digital Health, Space and Cyber sectors. The site will also be the first town centre zero carbon energy project in Scotland and will pioneer green energy projects including driverless cars, electric buses, and e-bikes.
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