Like their counterparts around the world, European law firms felt the financial pains of the pandemic, with many firms falling down the mergers and acquisitions rankings or generally seeing demand drop. Though lawyers across Germany, Italy, France and other EU nations said they don’t expect things to be all that bad in the end.

The toughest challenge on the business front has been client development, as regions so entrenched in socializing were forced to stay away from any face-to-face client meetings. But perhaps the biggest news out of the EU in 2020 was on the regulatory side, as individual countries and the EU alike created regulatory upheaval in one fashion or another.