The coronavirus pandemic has posed unique and unprecedented challenges for the court system. Courts, by their nature, typically require people to come in close contact with each other to function. Lawyers frequently congregate in courtrooms, sometimes by the hundreds. Jurors sit in proximity with one another, and with court personnel, during trials. Personal contact is also essential outside the courthouse. Lawyers must sit in conference rooms with each other, with clients for meetings, and with adversaries and witnesses for depositions. Many of us also are accustomed to coming to offices in the morning and having close contact with colleagues throughout the day.

These kinds of interactions, in which we all have engaged without a second thought for so long as we have practiced, now pose grave medical risks, and must be avoided or strong safeguards put into place.