Introduction to the ThinkHouse Brexit series

Michael Luckman: Well hello and thank you for joining our first ever remote ThinkHouse. I am expecting this will be what can only be described as interesting, which will match obviously the interesting times in which we find ourselves. I would just like to make a few introductory comments.

Firstly, I would really like to say thank you to everyone for your support of ThinkHouse, it was a real disappointment for us to have cancelled the physical event but the feedback you gave us was tremendous both about our decision but also about your keenness that we should present the material in a different format because you would have found it so interesting. So this is our attempt to meet that demand.

Secondly, please forgive the format, it is fair to say and I suspect like all of us really we have been patching a few things together and have put this format together, a bit like a Heath Robinson affair, might be a bit clunky but it does seem to be working and I give praise to the gods of IT that our business seems to be holding itself together pretty well. Please also forgive the informality of the speakers, we are all at home and spread out over the country and so please I hope don't be too harsh in judging on our pyjamas or our wallpaper as we sit here presenting. One of the advantages of doing a remote event is that I don't have to give any fire emergency notice but of course you might like to check that you haven't left your kettle on or deep fat fryer.

Obviously on the Brexit topics we have got a series of very interesting areas to discuss, we will be looking at the UK/EU Free Trade Agreement discussions and how of course border trade might look in the future. We will also be looking at how EU law is going to survive within the UK environment and then we will be looking at how a number of areas are going to look post-Brexit in particular employment law, data protection and contracts. There are some pdf slides which you might like to download while you listen to these presentations but you will be able to access them afterwards. The accompanying email with this material will also tell you how to access the various slides and various presentations if you only want to listen to only one or two topics we have discussed. As usual of course, please feel free to give us feedback particularly if you think anyone's orange jumper didn't particularly go with their pink wallpaper. It did feel a bit bizarre to be talking about Brexit when COVID-19 really is the news of the moment and so would just like to give you advance notice that in relatively short order we are hoping to put on a news night type question and answer session with a number of our experts to discuss the legal issues we are already having to meet arising out of the COVID-19 situation but for now do sit back and enjoy what we have to say about Brexit.