Coronavirus (COVID-19) - Contingency Plan
The wellbeing of our people and clients is of utmost importance to us, and is our main priority at Charles Russell Speechlys. We have ensured that there are plans in place to help protect everyone, while continuing to provide you with the service and expertise you have come to expect.
In response to the COVID-19 situation, all our staff are working remotely and remain fully operational for client matters and needs.
Finance Team
(1) Charles Russell Speechlys maintains business contingency plans to ensure that we are able to receive (and forward) funds on behalf of our clients in accordance with strict transactional deadlines.
(2) Our Fee Earners, Internal Client Services and Finance Departments are equipped with sufficient ‘agile’ devices, enabling a ‘business as usual‘ service for our clients in the event of a closure to any of our offices.
(3) Away from our offices, the Finance Department have online, instant access to our client accounts. We are therefore able to provide prompt notification of funds as they credit the client account.
(4) Our new Project Management System has enhanced our Business Continuity plans. The withdrawal of funds from client account is requested and approved through audited, online workflows. There is no longer a reliance on Partners having to be present in order to sign a paper form.
(5) In the event of a temporary closure to our London office, managing client money transactions in accordance with our clients’ demands is of the highest priority. The processes, technology and people outlined above will ensure that is the case.
Information Technology
(6) Our Technology platform is built on our own private cloud infrastructure between dedicated datacentres. The infrastructure is designed with high availability in mind with an up time of 99.9998%.
(7) We offer the highest level security with over 14 layers of technology for our working population, with the same level of security when working away from the office. 85% of our work force are equipped with the latest generation 2in1 laptops with multifactor authentication for remote working, the rest have access to Citrix, again with MFA. Our private cloud infrastructure allows us to access all applications remotely and is scaled to support 100% of our employees working remotely. We carry out bi-annual DR tests.
(8) Our stats show over a 4 week period, we have over 70% of the work force working remotely at some point.
(9) The IT support team all have the tools to support the firm with no loss of service delivery. Our telephones lines are virtualised and can be redirected to any other office or external number.
(10) A number of our senior staff have printing and scanning facilities at home, so that should the office be closed documents can be issued.
(11) All our client extranets are working, and if you wish to open one for any of your client projects this can be arranged.
(12) We are running our business development programme where possible by utilising technology, including webinar and video conferencing. We are fully functional in terms of responding to proposals, credential requests and tenders should the need arise.
If you have any queries, please contact Simon Ridpath on +44(0)20 7427 6406 or simon.ridpath@crsblaw.com