In the space of 11 months, Europe has been transformed in a way no one could have forecast. Close to half a million people on the continent have died from COVID, retail and services empires have fallen to rack and ruin, countless millions have lost their jobs, and all this amid social and political discord. 

But out of this hardship have come demonstrations of tenacity and grit, as well as keen lessons that have made the legal world sit up and pay attention.