Biscoes: We were able to exceed our pre-Covid targets in the financial year 2020-21

Alison Lee, managing director of Biscoes Solicitors, discusses the law firm's sponsorship of the Corporate Finance Team of the Year category for the Solent Deals Awards 2022, what the legal sector will look like in the medium term, and what trends to expect in the South East.

What has been your main motivator to sponsor the Solent Deals Awards?

The Biscoes commercial team has been growing and is now a significant player in the local market, so the sponsoring of these awards was to further align our excellent team with the best in the area in the commercial and business world.

What kind of qualities does a team need to take home an award from this event?

In the current climate more so than ever the winning individual and teams of these awards will have shown their responsiveness to their clients and an ability to adapt to changing times and methods of doing business.

What were the challenges your company faced during the pandemic and how did you overcome them?

One of the very first challenges was ensuring that clients were aware we were still able to service all their needs remotely and that our fantastic teams could still do all they needed even though the offices were not physically open. Our infrastructure and experience of having agile teams within the business meant that we were more prepared than most legal practices to deploy staff home overnight. With a dedicated and fantastic team who all pulled together, we were able to exceed our pre-covid targets in the financial year 2020-21.

Can you name some of the recent trends in the legal sector in the South East region this year?

One of the trends we have seen is firms reporting issues with recruitment and retention. Luckily Biscoes has not had that experience and has been able to make some significant recruitments in the past 12 months.

What do you expect in the short and medium term?

We consider there will not be a ‘return to work as normal’ in the way that many expected last year, work-life has changed forever. More remote and hybrid working will be here to stay along with more use of technology. At Biscoes, we are keen to combine these with a more client-centric approach to the way we work that benefits both our clients and our staff.

Learn more about the Solent Deals Awards 2022 here.