City law firms are preparing for an onslaught of client work after the Brexit referendum went the way of Vote Leave yesterday evening. The result means that many firms must put into play Brexit ‘game plans’ that have been in the works for many months – but that many hoped never to have to use. According to a recent poll conducted by legal industry publication The Lawyer, 65 per cent of legal professionals had hoped that Britain would reject Brexit and vote to stay in the EU. Several firms have set up 24-hour ‘Brexit hotlines’ for their clients, while others are in the process of sending out pre-prepared Brexit information packs which have been in the work for several months.

Referendum result

Vote Leave claimed victory in the country’s historic referendum by the slightest of margins, emerging with 51.9 per cent of the over 33.5 million votes cast compared with Vote Remain’s 48.1 per cent. The pound slumped to its lowest rate since 1985 overnight as the result of the referendum began to take shape, sliding more than 10 per cent against the US dollar to as low as $1.33 per unit. Meanwhile, the FTSE plummeted 8 per cent after the London Stock Exchange opened this morning, but has since recovered slightly to just 5 per cent down. UK Prime Minister David Cameron, a key figurehead in the Vote Remain campaign, offered his resignation this morning.

Lingering uncertainty

While law firms rush to prepare clients for Britain’s imminent exit, many are concerned that the Government’s exit strategy remains dangerously unclear. ‘It’s not clear how the government is going to serve notice to leave and under what timescale… It’s a real problem for business,’ one lawyer told The Lawyer. Hogan Lovells regional managing partner UK and Africa Susan Bright told Legal Week that some international clients are only ‘waking up’ to the reality of a Brexit this morning, as many had anticipated that Britain would vote to stay: ‘I think it’s fair to say that a lot of our US clients have been intellectually interested up until now, but reading the odds as we all did, they didn’t expect it to happen. Now they are very invested,’ she said.