The report found that many firms believe the remote environment has damaged personal relationships at work and the sense of belonging amongst many lawyers. “This is playing out in the ease with which lawyers—from partners to associates—have moved firms during the pandemic, often with little inkling of their impending departure,” it stated.
I posted a little while ago in “What I Learned Last Year” about my pre-pandemic efforts to make a virtual law office (VLO) my modus operandi. It didn’t take permanently (yet) because clients weren’t ready to leap. As noted in that post, I suspect that the pandemic may have changed things. Now, reports are coming in from Big Law and Business about the effect of the pandemic on lawyers, their firms, and their clients. Like other institutions, the legal community is in a state of flux. There’s change out there … lying like a killer in the sun.
Sit tight, take hold.
It reminds me of the album review of The Wild, The Innocent, and The E Street Shuffle by Ariel Swartley. I always seem to come back to her vivid description of the crowded club with the jukeboxes in the back – everyone waiting for inspiration and a reason to live. A signifier. It is nice to be in a profession that makes you want to dance. That is litigation and trial work for me. I used to take it for granted but not any longer. After the last few years, I have a renewed commitment to sound a barbaric yawp and get things done. Big Law may buckle under the pressure of the coming change, but I’m agile and eager to hit the open road.
H/T to The Boss