When Bob Hicks, chairman of law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister’s executive committee and the firm’s managing partner, posited in a February executive committee meeting that the impacts of the novel coronavirus could force the newly merged firm to radically reconsider its 2020 financial projections, he was met with claims that he was overreacting.

The Midwestern, 470-lawyer firm had just combined with Briggs and Morgan, a Minneapolis-based firm, effective Jan. 1, 2020. After a year of merger talks, partners were excited to function as one institution with a head count of more than 600 attorneys.