It is a new world for lawyers, no longer able to access their physical spaces, their dens, their law firm, offices, and conference rooms. The routines of lawyers have been abruptly altered by the coronavirus pandemic. In a recent article, Peter Lobl, “A Virtual Structure for Law Firms: Guidelines for Containing Your Lawyers’ Anxiety in the Age of COVID-19,” the author, a lawyer and psychologist, observed that our work routines have been disrupted: “What we are left with is ourselves in the place we inhabit alone, with family or with roommates. These routines and the places that represented the order of our work week and gave structure and meaning to our professional lives have vanished—and been replaced by Zoom.”

We are now, all of us, formerly cohesive as a group, operating singularly but somehow together through digital technology. Our days are no longer taken up by occasional meetings in a colleague’s office or at the refrigerator or coffeemaker stashed in the pantry. If we live with our families, the occasional videoconference may be interrupted by the barking of a dog or a child crying out. But whether we live in a family unit or alone, the lack of the work unit we were familiar with—the law firm that gathered up its professional staff every day, has produced very real and distinct social isolation that must be dealt with.