Just about everybody has a Zoom horror story from the past 18 months. Ken Pasquale, a partner in Stroock & Stroock & Lavan’s financial restructuring group and chair of the firm’s professional development committee, has one he likes to tell—but it’s about a first-year associate, not him.

It was the associate’s very first time speaking in front of a judge, on an uncontested motion in bankruptcy court. The associate felt he was ready—until, of course, he couldn’t get his video to work.