Q. This issue of Centrum has a theme of empathy and emotional intelligence so if I could ask you about this as it seems Burness Paull was perhaps already ahead of the curve on something others are now waking up to as an essential rather than “nice to have’ part of their business culture?

TT: Going back to culture it’s always been the case that the firm has tried to ensure the balance is struck between our commitment to excellence and being down-to-earth at the same time. We work in a complex field - our job is always to try and make it as simple as possible for clients to navigate. That means ensuring the environment we create allows every colleague in the firm to be happy at work and focus on delivering truly outstanding results.

People coming into the firm absolutely need to have the right personality, growth mindset, empathy and emotional intelligence are a must, and we can then develop their technical skills if needed.

Burness Paull was the first firm in Scotland to establish a Developing Leaders Programme and, within that, we’re unique in placing a particular emphasis on a rounded set of skills across leadership and management to complement legal skills. We encourage colleagues in every part of the business to support clients and each other in whatever way necessary.

That leads to a strong ‘whole firm’ mentality and discourages people from acting in a hierarchical fashion. That approach is definitely not a ‘nice to have’, clients notice these things and we get strong feedback that they appreciate it.

Q. There is a tendency for important topics such as diversity to become a talking shop and box-ticking exercise. You’ve introduced tangible initiatives such as menopause campaign. Tell us about work like this?

TT: At Burness Paull we want the legal sector to be a profession where everyone feels welcome, and it was really important to us that remote working didn’t disrupt progress with our Respect and Inclusion agenda.

We celebrated Pride virtually and used Black History Month in October to highlight the work we are doing to improve ethnic diversity in the profession. We were very conscious of the impact that the Black Lives Matters movement had on people during lockdown and wanted to reassure colleagues that it is an issue we are fully engaged with by signing up to Rare’s Race Fairness Commitment.

The firm is also working closely with the Law Society of Scotland and providing work experience opportunities through Scottish Ethnic Minority Lawyers Association and PRIME to push this agenda forward. Burness Paull is a Stonewall Diversity Champion and BeProud is the firm's network for LGBT+ staff and allies.

BeProud works hard to raise awareness and shape a more inclusive environment for LGBT+ colleagues within the firm and the wider community by consulting on internal policies and processes, organising events and collaborating with other LGBT+ networks and charities such as Stonewall and LGBT Health and Wellbeing.

Last year, the head of our Employment team, Mandy Laurie, wrote a blog about her own menopause fears and the importance of introducing a policy that addresses the issues and clearly signposts the help available.

The response from clients was overwhelming and led to us hosting three roundtables with contacts to discuss menopause in the workplace and how best to tackle the issues and devise effective workplace strategies.

As a result of these discussions, we launched a thought leadership paper highlighting the importance of raising awareness of the menopause, normalising menopause discussions in the workplace and the existence of workplace policies that could greatly assist menopausal individuals without singling them out. It also sets out the key steps to creating a menopause friendly workplace.

There is always room for improvement, and we are constantly looking to collaborate with partner organisations to ensure that internal and external processes are as inclusive and accessible as possible.”

Q. Workplace (and other forms of) stress damages the prefrontal cortex, making us less productive and can ultimately impact business performance. As we come out of this pandemic there will be opportunities but also challenges in terms of mental wellbeing at work. What do you do in an area Mary Portas has referred to as the “kindness economy”?

TT: From the outset of the pandemic, we have promoted how important it is to be kind to yourself and others. That’s a message I’ve pushed personally in weekly video updates to colleagues. Our approach even before we closed our offices was to take into account individual circumstances, having people work from home if they - or relatives - were in a vulnerable category or uncomfortable travelling.

One of the first documents we produced in response to the pandemic dealt with the mental health implications and potential challenges of prolonged periods of remote working. The priority was to ensure our colleagues know how to access resources and support, for example through approved medical providers, the firm’s Employee Assistance Programme or our trained Mental Health First Aiders.

We put huge focus on communication and ensuring teams were keeping in touch and checking in on each other. Particularly for managers to be individually checking in and not making assumptions about people’s circumstances.

The theme of this years’ Mental Heath Awareness Week in May was kindness, and we used this theme to launch internal and external campaigns encouraging everyone to share their acts of kindness – this created a real buzz and highlighted there was some great activity going on across the firm even when people were away from the office.

We also launched a health and wellbeing survey to take the temperature and find out how everyone was coping. Managers then used the results to create action plans to address issues.

This resulted in a series of resilience sessions, financial wellbeing sessions and physical challenges/competitions to help support people with the challenges of lockdown being extended.

At a recent virtual partners’ conference we dedicated significant time to discuss very candidly the impact on staff and partners of prolonged home working and our strategies to address it.

Q. We don’t need to rehearse the events of 2020 but how are you and Burness Paull viewing the prospect of 2021?

TT: No-one can predict the future as we’ve all learned over the past year, but we have been working hard to forecast the impact it will have and how we best mitigate that going forward.

We are fortunate the firm is in a very strong financial position and we will continue to run the business on the prudent basis it always has been. However, it’s clear that many business sectors have and will continue to face extraordinary challenges. Some business models have been completely turned upside down - and may never be the same again. Other industries have seen a benefit as consumer and corporate habits have changed and new ways of living and working have been rapidly adopted.

How quickly the wider economy recovers will be largely dependent on how long lockdown measures last in various countries. There’s no doubt it will have an impact on the legal sector. To continue to be successful firms will have to adapt very quickly to serve new client needs and integrate new technology to ensure they are able to provide their services profitably.

From our own firm’s point of view, we are very close to our clients and their markets. We believe there will be opportunities to do things differently that can benefit everyone.

burnesspaull.com

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