PART 8: KEEPING YOUR LAW FIRM CONNECTED FROM A DISTANCE
Even though he was the “Number 2,” Silvio Dante had a way with words. For the SDL’s purposes, we are using this quote to note that the July 4th holiday should be used to refresh the new normal as best as possible when it comes to law firm communication. The SDL, a/k/a me, is well aware of the troubling rise in COVID-19 cases in many parts of the country. This sad development may very well mean that uncertainty in our profession and physical separation will continue long into the coming months.
At my firm (as many other did also), we instituted a mandatory a daily “9AM Call” as a way to stay connected. This system has worked fairly well. The challenge we faced has been doing these same calls every workday since March. To shake things up a bit, back in late April we started giving assignments for topic discussions to the attorneys. As Managing Partner, I conducted the Monday call and then each lawyer was asked to present a different topic for the remaining days of the week. Now, with the passage of time, all attorneys have presented on multiple occasions, from the SDL to the newest lawyer. The topics ranged from analyzing new decisions to how we can work more efficiently to the use of certain experts (to name a few). We have coupled these morning calls with individual calls with each attorney to go over every open case in the firm. We typically went through five cases per each individual call. Sometimes, these individual calls have gone quickly and at other times, the calls have been quite lengthy.
Well, I have learned that a pandemic is a hard thing to predict. Since we went to a mostly remote workplace, we have had about seventy-two daily calls plus about two-hundred individual calls on specific case issues. To the credit of everyone involved, we have covered a tremendous amount of ground and issues. At this point, I believe that our clients and the firm has been very well served by these conversations.
As the season changes to summer, it feels like we need to shift gears and refresh our process. It feels like we need a good ol’fashion firm happy hour (no, not virtual). Alas, the bars remain closed (and are now closed again in Florida). So, at least for the short term, we have decided to reduce our daily call to every other day to give attorneys more time to work on new topics of discussion. We have also developed a case “takeaway” form for attorneys to record the issues that arose in their individual file review, so that we do not cover the same ground and ensure prior issues were resolved. Since we are not going to have summer hours this year, this is about as close as we can get under these circumstances.
I would love to hear what other firms and businesses are doing to stay connected in these difficult times. I miss our firm’s legendary post-6PM (sometimes way later) impromptu conversations (mostly in my office) where venting, collaborating, and laughing were on our loose agenda. Sometimes, these conversations would roll into a Mets or Knicks (gasp) game where at least the company and banter did not disappoint.
As for law firms, I still believe that candid conversations and free exchange of ideas are how winning strategies are born, even from a distance.
