The Legal Profession After Covid-19
How the Legal Landscape has Changed in the Last Few Months
As the novel coronavirus continues to upend the social, financial, and political order of countries around the world, the legal industry faces the dual challenge of providing legal counsel for businesses regarding Covid-19 work guidelines and adjusting to those guidelines and practices.
Within New York City for example, the New York Bar advises that firms proceed with caution and only bring back employees as needed. As the governor lifts restrictions in an effort to restart the local economy and get businesses churning again, the bar association stresses that firms take the necessary steps to limit the risk of infection. Thus, while law firms were given the okay to reopen for phase 2 in mid-May, the bar group urges firms not to rush back, especially within an area devastated by the coronavirus.
Covid-19 Will Speed Up Change
The consensus among legal professionals is that changes that were in the pipeline are occurring much faster due to the coronavirus. In other words, the entire industry from the courts to law firms to law schools will have to enter the digital age a bit faster than it would have normally.
For example, some firms are instituting knowledge management systems that employees might have might have resisted in the past. Nowadays, however, they have no choice but to embrace changes that make work more efficient and accessible for people outside the office.
Remote Work is Only the Beginning
While remote work is not exactly new to the business world, the global pandemic has demonstrated how much of the workforce can become virtual. Essentially, social distancing and stay-in-place orders have forced the legal industry to adopt underused technological tools. While the profession has long been a bastion of tradition, it cannot argue with the increased efficiency and enhanced productivity of a remote workforce.
Firms and In-house Departments Will Be Revamped
Ready access to new technology means that traditional law firms and corporate departments will have to collaborate more often within their firms and with others across the supply chain. In other words, the artificial divides that existed before coronavirus will start to disappear. Basically, going digital means that law firms and in-house corporate legal departments will operate as integrated teams instead of as large entities with many separate units.
For this reason, innovators like the law firm FisherBroyles may become the norm instead of the anomaly. Their agile, flexible model of a virtual law firm with the ability to scale is perfectly positioned for the post-Covid-19 world. While they have already enjoyed success by disrupting the legal industry, their revolutionary formula should prove to be even more successful in our new normal.
Creating Coronavirus Task Forces
One of the things that lawyers and firms have had to figure out rapidly is how to advise their clients regarding coronavirus issues. Consequently, some firms have devised coronavirus task forces with lawyers from different areas such as employment law to help with workplace safety and best practices and bankruptcy law to counsel businesses suffering economic fallout from the virus.
Nowadays, the first priority for businesses reopening is to have plans in place for keeping their employees safe. They also need to know what to do when employees are exposed to or contract coronavirus. In this case, law firms need to have experts in relevant areas who are up-to-date on the latest legal developments. As a result, information sharing and easy access has taken on even greater urgency.
Courtrooms to Adopt Digital Technology
Although not all disputes can be settled through online judging, the coronavirus pandemic may be the catalyst for letting the internet into our courtrooms. The Supreme Court holding oral arguments for the first time via telephone represents a sea change in the legal industry. If an institution as hidebound to tradition as the Supreme Court can allow technology to enter their hallowed halls, our state and local courts are sure to follow.
The live feed of Supreme Court arguments going out to news media highlights the inherent inaccessibility, cost, and lengthy processes of our court system and how much it could benefit from the digital age. Although the coronavirus pandemic abruptly put the brakes on our justice system, it may also be the spark that forces it to incorporate modern technology. For instance, a lawyer with a personal legal issue could meet with a legal ethics lawyer discreetly via teleconference without ever having to leave his or her own office.
Thus, the ongoing global pandemic has brought issues to the forefront of the legal industry that many traditionalists may have ignored in the past. Moreover, most firms will have no choice as many clients will prefer to use technology to handle legal matters. Without a doubt, Covid-19 has already refashioned the legal landscape and hastened change in an industry that is used to resisting it. However, a more connected legal profession will only benefit consumers and serve as a signal to industry professionals that the pre-pandemic ways of doing business are gone for good.