Today we chat to Managing Partner and Family Law Solicitor, Fiona Moffat. Fiona is the senior member of the team and has been with Timms for 18 years where she has always specialised in Family Law and remains a member of the Law Society Children panel. Fiona enjoys the opportunity to work with Guardians to represent children, very often in care proceedings.
Fiona also undertakes divorce and finance cases and is a collaborative lawyer.
In her spare time she enjoys the opportunity to walk in the lovely Derbyshire countryside and explore the trails perhaps with a pub halfway round for a bit of a rest! She also has a dark secret which involves sewing and quilting which is believed, due to the precision required, to have meditative qualities - unless it all goes wrong and hits the bin, never reaching the light of day!
The 'New Normal'
Fiona, like everyone else, is getting used to the “new normal”.
She says, "Things will just never go back to how they were before. Looking back on how we have worked since the end of March, it feels that it was very inefficient in the past and that since we have been working remotely so many significant changes have happened mostly for the better".
Fiona continues "It is still difficult to see how some of the remote hearings are fair for parents who have problems with internet connections or just not good enough broadband in their homes to fully participate in cases involving their own children. On occasions the level of difficulty has been hard to experience for all concerned. Most of those teething problems are now over and on the plus side we are avoiding long periods of waiting at court for a case to be called as we are working to clearly defined appointment times".
Home Office Or Timms Office?
For the majority of time, Fiona is working from the office where, due to the lay out and the size of the space we occupy, we can easily socially distance. Like many thousands of people Fiona has been busy decorating her spare room in a lovely golden colour and made it operational as a home office which is brilliant, and she really enjoys time spent in her newly decorated room. The IT provision Timms has achieved has been excellent and Fiona has been pleasantly surprised at how few problems home working poses - just an inquisitive cat who likes trying to be involved and occupy her computer keyboard!
A New Way Of Working
Talking about the new way of working, Fiona comments;
"The first face to face interview with a perspex screen between the client and legal advisor was very strange and it felt a little over cautious. Now in the light of the second wave of Covid-19 being upon us, it is reassuring to have the necessary precautions in place to make sure everyone feels safe. Many interviews have been conducted over the phone or using Microsoft Teams and it is amazing how quickly those of us who are technophobes have taken to this way of communicating".
She continues; "It is absolutely certain that some clients would find it less stressful to deal with matters from their living room and equally certain that others really struggle. To some extent remote hearings lack the sense of gravity particularly when people are attending more casually dressed and the presentation style is much less formal. The Covid-19 pandemic has been with us for months and it is likely for many more months to come and we just need to keep calm and carry on".
