Perth law firm hosts virtual drinks session to keep the workforce connected while staff work from home

Perth law firm finds a way to maintain Friday tradition amid the virus outbreak, while keeping working-from-home staff connected. 

Catriona Macleod has a drink with colleague Laura Thurston who is working from home. Cullen Macleod Lawyers has found a way to preserve the institution of Friday drinks in a coronavirus world. Picture: News Corp

The coronavirus may be spreading across the world, wreaking havoc along the way, but it can’t kill off Friday work drinks.

Perth law firm Cullen Macleod Lawyers will on Friday night host a virtual drinks session for the dozens of staff and clients who are working from home due to the outbreak, one of several steps the firm is taking to help keep its workforce connected.

An unprecedented number of Australians now working from home in response to coronavirus, with many of the largest companies in the country now encouraging their staff not to come into the office.

Cullen Macleod has always allowed its lawyers to work flexibly, but the number of people working remotely has surged in the past week and around two-thirds of the team is no longer in the office.

The firm’s co-owner Catriona Macleod said the drinks session – which will be hosted through an online video conferencing platform – was a fun and important way to keep the firm’s people connected and remind them that life continues amid the crisis.

Digital drinks. Greg Paull and Catriona Macleod have a drink with colleague Laura Thurston. Picture: News Corp

“What we’re seeing is that everyone feels like the world is stopping. But it’s not about the world stopping, it’s about adapting for the immediate future,” she told The Australian.

“It doesn’t mean we have to stop communicating, in fact it’s critical that we don’t. Having digital drinks is another way of doing what we’ve always done, just in a different way.”

The firm – whose co-owner, Rick Cullen, also happens to own prize-winning Margaret River winery Cullen Wines – has also furnished its workers with vital supplies of toilet paper and wine to help them through the crisis.

Ms Macleod said the firm had been able to order in bulk through their commercial supplier and was now offering free rolls to anyone caught short.

“We’ve told the staff we can order as much as we need and we’ve also sourced some hand sanitiser for them to make them feel better,” she said.

“It just seems pretty obvious to me, if we can source things to help people then why wouldn’t we? It just makes life that little less stressful, it’s one less thing for them to think about.”

She expects Friday’s drinks to be particularly well-attended, given many of the firm’s lawyers and staff will have gone through their first week of self-isolation.

Ms Macleod is also planning to send some wine out to lawyers at other firms who may be working in increasingly empty offices and invite them to log in through an online conferencing system.

“We will send them some Cullen wines, then they can ‘remote’ in and we will have a toast,” she said.