We begin with three interviews. Prof Witold Orłowski, the chief economic advisor to PwC in Poland talks about the pandemic's effects on the Polish economy, and global trends for a post-Covid-19 future. Bogdan Kucharski, CEO of BP in Poland, describes the response of the fuel retailer, ensuring the health and safety of its staff and customers. Marcin Szopa, CEO of BSI Group in Poland looks at resilience and business continuity – one of the biggest issues facing companies now and in the future – and how standards are essential to ensure 'resilience' really works.

Mungo Keulemans, CEO at PMR Ltd, gives some industry-specific insights based on interviews with senior managers from across four Polish sectors, conducted late last month. From this article you'll be able to see just how deep the disruption has been, and how differently sectors have coped.

The rest of the articles are grouped in four sections:

The Anti-Covid-19 Shield – how effective are the business-support measures offered by the Polish state?

• Wojciech Majkowski and Dariusz Wójtowicz from the Corporate Tax Advisory Team at KPMG in Poland define the measures and how to claim for government support.

• How does Poland compare with the UK in terms of the scope and ease of accessing government support? Konrad Kąkol from Capital Business Links Ltd looks at the two systems side by side

• Tomasz Mróz of Compliance Partners International explains how businesses that are not tax-resident in Poland can tap into the state support that's on offer – if at all

• Paula Koczara and Karolina Terech from Bird & Bird's Employment Law practice ask whether it makes more sense to lay off employees or to apply for state aid

• Katarzyna Klimczyk, tax advisor, manager at Accreo Sp. z o.o. considers the tax-law implications of claiming support under the government's scheme

Best practice – coping with the crisis – how BPCC members have been dealing with disruptions; lessons that can be shared.

• Like BP, Tesco has borne the brunt of extensive and costly measures that needed to be implemented to keep essential retailing open. Daria Kulińska, head of communications, Tesco Poland, president of the Tesco Foundation and BPCC board member, shares the experiences – some less obvious than others

• Many of us are new to working from home; Natalia Korek from Basck, an intellectual property consultancy, explains that Basck was set up from the outset to operate with a distributed workforce. Useful experiences to be shared here!

• Joanna Bilińska and Bartosz Mordaka from Cognifide explore remote working in detail, how to keep healthy, sane and fit, work effectively in teams – and not lose contact with the world.

• Manufacturers, like retailers, cannot send people home if they want to keep production going. Hubert Kowalski, from Déhora Consultancy Group offers advice for industry.

• The lockdown has forced many small business owners to change the way they work. It has also given them time to refocus on sales strategy, driven by IT. Bart Kowalczyk of PBlink shares his thoughts on how to use enforced lockdown time effectively.

• A global company with offices in the Far East had early warning and could prepare. Monika Ciesielska-Mróz of PM Group explains how quickly business continuity plans can be re-written when things suddenly change

• Adam Zohry from Mazars in Poland offers a handy six-point checklist for business leaders to go through – have you overlooked anything crucial?

Legal issues – there are so many completely new problems that managers have never faced before. Looking at them through the prism of the law is helpful.

• How are the Polish courts functioning during lockdown? Points to bear in mind before going to law, with Dr Michał Jabłoński from Dentons

• International trade and the Vienna Convention – a little-know codex that could come in useful at a time like this. By Natalia Jodłowska from Gessel Attorneys at Law

• Natalia Jodłowska and Łukasz Ostas, Gessel Attorneys at Law look at the implications for Bilateral Investment Treaties – especially important in the Polish-UK space, given Brexit as well as the pandemic

• The ability to give a document the legal power of a wet-ink signature while locked down at home is more important than ever before. Barbara Tomczyk from Gessel Attorneys at Law explains how to do e-signatures in Poland

• One massive headache arising from the retail lockdown is the relationship between landlords and tenants in the retail, hospitality and entertainment sectors. Marcin Świerżewski and Michał Prochwicz from Bird & Bird navigate through the pain-points.

• Rafał Zakrzewski from Baker & McKenzie addresses the issue of firms doing business between the UK and Poland on the basis of English law

• Businesses’ contractual obligation in a time of pandemic come under the scrutiny of Dr Kinga Ziemnicka from Wardyński & Partners

• Magdalena Wątroba from Dentons highlights the main points to consider when looking through your contracts for business that has been affected by the pandemic

• How is competition law dealing with a market in which some firms are cooperating with their competitors whilst others are raising their prices excessively? Dr Dariusz Aziewicz from Eversheds Sutherland Poland looks at the law in (current) practice

The global economy and the Polish market post-Covid-19 – new trends will emerge; how will businesses have to adapt to the 'new normal'?

• Four scenarios for the further development of the pandemic are offered by Deloitte. It's worth getting your business plans ready for all four – things may turn out better than hoped for – or worse than you feared

• Mergers and acquisitions are a perennial feature of business life. However, who will be merging with – or acquiring – whom (and from where), is likely to change. Weronica Achramowicz from Baker & McKenzie examines the new trends

• Globalisation and international travel are likely to take a pause. What does this mean for international education? Tom McGrath of the British Primary School of Wilanów, considers the implications for the future.

• One area of business facing massive change when this is all over will be the compliance function. Katarzyna Saganowska from TMF Poland says that identifying and mitigating risk will become far more important for all businesses

• ACCA’s chief economist, Michael Taylor, asks whether the economic consequences of the Covid-19 epidemic will be short and sharp – or long and painful?

• Aon's latest C-suite report report looks at how well placed the global economy is to weather the storm, in particular international trade and the financial sector.

Finally – new EU anti-money-laundering legislation that was meant to have come into force has been postponed until 13 July. By then, firms must enter their ultimate beneficial owners into a central register. What this means in practice is covered
by Cezary Żelaźnicki, managing partner at PwC Legal Pawłowski, Żelaźnicki sp.k.

There's a lot to read – really useful and practical articles; not an enjoyable task under these circumstances – but a necessary one!