Message from Pedro Rebelo de Sousa - COVID-19

Dear Friends and Clients,
 
As you will have witnessed from the outset, SRS Advogados was quick to adapt its work processes to the Pandemic, seeking to safeguard the health of our lawyers, employees, family members, clients, suppliers and other stakeholders, whilst at the same time maintaining our existing high professional standards and levels of service. 
 
If there is one thing we can say with certainty, in these uncertain times, is that we have worked in an even more unified and collegiate manner that has created an incredible dynamic not only between our lawyers, but also between our lawyers and our clients and contacts. In this context we have respected our commitments to clients and society as a whole and, taking up the call for solidarity in the context in which we find ourselves, we have embraced new projects. In particular we have been supporting the fight against Covid-19 in conjunction with our clients including in particular The Claude and Sofia Marion Foundation. Additionally, we have provided online training for GRACE members (the largest organization in Portugal involved in corporate social responsibility), carried out fundraising for the students of the Alapraia area schools, and provided pro bono legal advisory in the solidarity campaign "Never Give Up" as promoted by the LAPS Foundation (an Italian non-governmental organization focused on the care and well-being of minors, in particular those who have special education needs).
 
It is therefore important for us to give a sincere word of appreciation to all of you, our friends and clients, for the incredible support you have given us and for the extraordinary way you have adapted to new ways of communicating, without losing proximity and trust. We have successfully managed to communicate by videoconference, call and/or email, maintaining our availability and focus on you and your concerns, as well as ours. We are sure that much of what we have learnt can improve our communication and make it even more efficient.
 
Thank you very much.
 
With the same awareness with which we decided to be pioneers in public health protection, we are now conscious that it makes sense to begin, one step at a time, and with an increased level of awareness, a careful return to face-to-face work. We feel it is important to have personal contact again - in full compliance with government guidelines - with all our stakeholders, especially our clients. It was crucial to “go”, and it is crucial to “come back”.
 
We were convinced that the best way to control the spread of Covid-19 would be to switch to remote working (and were the first large Portuguese firm to do so), and we are sure that taking that responsibility individually and collectively was the right decision to make. We are now committed to a new responsibility - that of being active agents controlling the economic consequences of the lockdown which allowed the mitigation of the Pandemic.
 
These will continue to be challenging times, and in which it will be necessary to remember recent lessons of solidarity and humanity, even as this memory fades. We will not waste the lessons and the open questions that this period has left us with. The moment requires us to reinvent ourselves both personally and institutionally.
 
We will return stronger, facing the future as always guided by our motto “Focus Matters”.
 
Thank you and kind regards,
 
Pedro Rebelo de Sousa
Managing Partner