Ongoing response to COVID-19

Since the onset of the pandemic, we at Anthony Gold have worked hard to ensure our clients remain fully supported. Whilst the majority of our professional staff were able to work from home during the lockdown periods, we maintained a core administration staff in each of our offices.

Following the lifting of restrictions in July 2021, our staff have been making a gradual return to our offices. Many of our professional and support staff now work flexibly, but all our fee earners spend some time in the office each week.

The pandemic has had a significant effect on how we carry out our interactions with clients. Many meetings have moved to online portals, such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, but although video conferencing is here to stay, this is not always as effective and sometimes there is simply no substitute for seeing real-time facial expressions and being able to build a rapport and trust with our clients in person. Sometimes, for vulnerable clients in extremely challenging situations, it is the only way.

Given the often highly emotive circumstances surrounding a lot of the work we do, communication and contact with our clients is essential. For many of our clients, face-to-face meetings are fundamental to our role as trusted advisor.

Hopefully restrictions will remain lifted going forward, although we keep a close eye on government updates and continue to follow the guidance. We accept that anxiety levels remain high, and many people remain cautious in their approach to meeting in person, so whilst we make every effort to ensure client safety, we do also offer clients a choice as to whether they prefer to meet face-to-face or virtually.

The ‘new normal’ will involve a combination of both digital and face-to-face, for both business networking and client consultations, and we will continue to work with clients using a variety of methods including phone, e-mail, Zoom and other forms of interactive technology.

However, meeting clients who find themselves in life changing circumstances is a fundamental part of the work we do and in these cases, please be assured that we are maintaining the stringent hygiene measures implemented during the restrictions. The safety of our clients and staff remains of the utmost importance to us and we continue to provide antibacterial hand gel and PPE, as well as antibacterial cleaning of frequently touched surfaces.

We look forward to being able to see more clients in person, as well as online, over the coming weeks and months and to continue to provide the excellent levels of client service we are pride ourselves on.

David Marshall – Managing Partner