Coronavirus is said to be going to irreversibly change the face of business; will the legal sector also be affected? What has been the influence of COVID-19 on law firms?

Piotr Kochański: The coronavirus pandemic has only accelerated the processes I have been talking about for a long time. Businesses, not only law firms, now understand the need to digitalise their operations and introduce advanced solutions, in both internal organisation management and customer service. At Kochański & Partners we have already been undertaking and developing these processes for a decade. The pandemic forced companies to suddenly switch to remote work, for which many of them were unprepared in terms of organisation and technology. Therefore, solutions and technologies enabling joint work on documents or secure access to databases have become increasingly relevant. With the pandemic, those lawyers who had been reluctant so far, at last are understanding that digitalisation of legal services is no longer a choice, but a necessity.

What does this mean for clients?

PK: The value offered by technological solutions in the area of legal services is, above all, an enormous saving of time - for both lawyers and clients. With the automation of repetitive operations, lawyers will be able to fully dedicate themselves to intellectual work that cannot be performed by computers. Nowadays, the greatest value we can offer clients is creative time dedicated to them. Lawyers can now focus on developing innovative solutions and looking for opportunities to develop their clients’ businesses.

So the lawyer of the future is also a business advisor?

PK: Yes, indeed. Today lawyers are expected to not only know the legal environment of an organisation, but also to understand their clients’ business goals. Lawyers must think holistically about the needs of companies, and this requires an in-depth knowledge of the specific nature of their business. This is why at Kochański & Partners we focus on five main sectors of the economy: energy, infrastructure, real estate, financial services, and new technologies, science and industry. With this approach, we are able to fully understand our clients’ industries and business environment and customise our advice to their individual needs. A good example is the legal assistance we provide to financial sector companies in implementing cloud computing solutions. Cloud computing offers enormous opportunities for financial and infrastructural optimisation for banks, but so far its application has been hampered mainly by cybersecurity issues and regulatory constraints. Our firm, through the experience gained from our involvement in the works on PolishCloud standards, assists financial institutions in implementing cloud solutions in compliance with cybersecurity requirements.

Is such a proactive and business-oriented approach the future of Polish law firms?

PK: It definitely is. In Poland, the use of state-of-the-art technologies by lawyers and their business orientation, are still a novelty, but at leading global law firms this revolution is in full swing. At Kochański & Partners we understand these needs and are changing our approach to multidisciplinary legal advice, which is why major international law firms often choose to work with us as their local Polish partner. We have recently formalised such an alliance with one of the world’s largest law firms.