How The Legal Industry Needs To Change

Covid-19 has hit law firms especially hard. The face-to-face nature of a lot of legal work and in-person courts have ensured that legal settings are breeding grounds for the virus. Quarantines and business slowdowns have ensured that firms are suffering a significant reduction in both clients walking through the door and in the ability to conduct litigation and legal work.

If there’s any silver lining for the legal industry during this outbreak, we hope that it includes an increased realization amongst the members of the legal community that some things need to change. What do we think is most in need of transformation? Continue reading below to find out.

Live Courts

For most kinds of legal matters, litigation is almost always conducted in-person. And this makes sense, for the most part. Litigation is a high-stakes game dealing with sensitive subjects. It’s only fair that a defendant is able to see the witnesses arrayed against him or for a plaintiff to be in the same room with the defendant.

But there are undoubtedly ways to decrease the amount of in-person contact between the parties to a court proceeding. Some simple court proceedings, like routine criminal court matters (bail hearings, for example) could be conducted by videoconference at a fraction of the cost.

While complex trials likely won’t be going virtual any time soon, things like depositions could very well occur online. The presumption towards in-person hearings should shift in favor of a presumption for virtual presence.

Lawyer Culture

Legal culture is extraordinarily conservative. It’s not unusual to hear lawyers bemoan the advent of computer technology and brag about their ineptitude with technology. This is unfortunate. A culture that clings to the past forfeits the future.

A culture shift is required amongst lawyers, especially the more established ones, to allow for new and more technological ways of doing business. Whether that’s an openness to storing documents in secure clouds, conducting virtual meetings, allowing for documents to be e-signed, or encouraging support staff to work from home, there are countless ways that lawyers could encourage innovation in the legal workplace.

Lack of Preparedness

Because lawyers and law firms are usually so busy, many of them do very little strategic planning for the future. As a result, disaster mitigation strategies for a lot of firms simply don’t exist or are woefully inadequate.

We hope that one of the consequences of the current crisis is a renewed focus by lawyers and firms on the importance of planning and strategy. Just as important as meeting the day-to-day needs of their clients, proper plans guide the future of a firm and prepare it for success.

Final Thoughts

Covid-19 has suddenly created a new and unpleasant reality. Our hearts go out to everyone affected. We hope, however, that some good will come of this crisis. We hope that the legal industry will learn the lessons of the outbreak and put them to good use so that we’re better prepared for the next disruptive event.

Mitigating Damage From Future Disasters

The extent and depth of the damage caused by Covid-19 were unexpected. The fallout from the impact of the virus will likely echo into the months and years ahead in a variety of forms: economic damage, personal difficulties, and business disruption, among others.

But a few things are certain. First, this too shall pass. It might be a cliche but, eventually, things will return to some level of normalcy. The United States is a fundamentally strong nation with a healthy economy and, as a people, we will endure. Second, another crisis will come along after Covid-19 is just a memory.

Time will tell if we were prepared enough for Covid-19. What we can guarantee, however, is that we are prepared for the next crisis that comes along. So how do you go about ensuring that you’re ready for the next disruption? Continue reading below to find out.

Use the Good Times

Remember the fable of the ants and the grasshopper? The ants spent all summer gathering and storing food for the winter while the grasshopper played music. When winter came around, the ants had food and the grasshopper went without.

Be the ant, not the grasshopper. Use times of plenty, not just to gather and store resources for the future, but to future-proof your business. Use good times to make plans for business disruptions and organize your firm for maximum flexibility. That way, when the hard times come knocking, you’ll be well-prepared.

Use Technology

We’ve already written an article on some of the tools you can use to remotely work from home. But technology has benefits beyond just allowing us to work from home. Cloud software allows us to secure our data and make it accessible from anywhere on the planet. Video conferencing software allows us to stay in contact with our clients from a distance, even if they’re unable to come into our offices. And budgeting and bookkeeping software allow us to keep a close eye on our finances to ensure we have a rainy-day fund set aside for leaner months.

There are reams of technology available all over the internet to help us shock-proof our firms. And while we’ll still suffer some of the ill effects of an economic downturn, that technology can turn our firms into lean and flexible organizations able to adapt to almost any situation.

Have Fail Safes in Place

Every plan needs a backup. Just as you want your organization to be lean and adaptable, you want backup plans in place in case that key employee comes down with an illness or you lose your internet connection temporarily. You should have a backup plan at the ready for every key technology and component you rely upon.

Final Thoughts

These are difficult times. We extend our sympathies to anyone affected by Covid-19 (which is almost everyone these days). But let’s use these hard times to the best of our ability to mitigate the damage of future crises. We owe it to ourselves, our colleagues, our clients, and our loved ones to be as resilient as possible.

Work In The Time of Covid-19

At the time of this writing, the world is in the grips of the novel coronavirus known as Covid-19. Hundreds of thousands are ill, economies have sputtered to a halt, and small firms everywhere are at a loss about what to do.

At the end of the day, though, you still have people to employ, bills to pay, rent to make, and files to maintain. At the same time, you have an ethical responsibility not to put anyone at unnecessary risk of contracting the virus. How do you balance those two propositions? Continue reading below to see our tips on how to best stay safe while continuing to get the most out of your human and other resources.

Work From Home

The best advice we can offer is probably to do everything possible to make sure your people work from home. Now, you’ve heard this before. The federal government, various state governments, health agencies, and the news media have all been vocal about the importance of working from home during this crisis. We’ve also posted about some tools you can use to work from home during this period.

But it bears repeating. Physical separation and isolation is the best way to prevent the spread of the virus and keep your people healthy. If at all possible, your people should use technology to work from home.

Use the Economic Disruption To Your Advantage

You’ve probably noticed fewer clients calling for consultations. There are probably fewer people walking through your doors. And while that’s not great for your bottom line (and we empathize with everyone who’s going through a particularly hard time right now) it does create an opportunity to get some work done that you may have been putting off.

Slower periods are great opportunities to do the hard strategy and planning work that so many firm owners and managers put off during busier times. You may wish to consider doing any of the following tasks while you have the time on your hands:

• Writing business plans

• Finishing budgets and financial plans

• Writing standard operating procedures (SOPs)

• Negotiating with service providers to reduce payments

• Drafting a firm-wide strategy for the coming year

• Creating a disaster-mitigation strategy for the next disruption

The exact task you choose to complete will depend on your needs but our point is that you don’t have to be idle during this time. Use the busy times to do some solid planning and you’ll reap the rewards later when business picks up again. 

Final Thoughts

No one enjoys massive reductions in business and our hearts go out to anyone suffering during this difficult time. But, as firm owners and managers, we have a responsibility to our communities, clients, and employees to make the best of a bad situation.

If we use the time to improve our businesses, protect our people, and plan for the future, we’ll come out of this crisis stronger and faster than ever before. We wish you the best of luck.