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This is a tough time for the world.
Lawyers, like millions of other humans, are filled with stress, anxiety and even panic at the changes that COVID-19 is bringing to the world.
In the midst of strife, there is hope.
ALM publications are collecting stories about attorneys who have found strength and resilience in the midst of this crisis. These attorneys are putting their clients first, using creative workarounds that take social distancing into mind. They’re also turning to hobbies that not only bring comfort to their lives, but give others a welcome respite from the gloomy news.
Using the medicine of humor, quick-witted lawyers are offering distraction and spreading laughter, as opposed to germs. Their generosity is also shining through as they help healthcare workers protect themselves.
Here we have collected an offering of stories of surviving the pandemic.
Colleen Carboy, second from left, poses with colleagues at the New Jersey hospital where she has been treating COVID-19 patients. Courtesy photo.
Nurse-Attorneys? Yes. Lawyers Are Donning Scrubs Again to Help Battle COVID-19
In the medical-malpractice legal field, it’s not uncommon for attorneys to have health care backgrounds. There’s even a legal group, the American Association of Nurse Attorneys, that counts 300 members who hold dual degrees as nurses and lawyers. The association’s listserv has shared stories of their members who have paused their legal practices to don scrubs again to care for coronavirus patients.
“Nursing is in your DNA. We’re called to serve,” said Lorie Brown, the president-elect of the nurse-attorney association.
Here to Help: Florida Bar Launches Confidential Lawyer Helpline Early Amid COVID-19 Pressures
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The Florida Bar had planned to launch its new confidential attorney helpline in July. But in the shadow of COVID-19, now seemed as good a time as any.
Beginning Friday, attorneys will be able to connect confidentially with professional counselors, who will help them deal with family and medical woes, work pressure, substance abuse and other issues.
The service will be free for all bar members and open 24/7.
While Volunteering in a NYC Pop-Up Hospital, This Texas Law Grad Learned He Had Passed the Bar
John Kiraly, a UNT Dallas College of Law graduate who learned this month he passed the Texas bar exam, has volunteered for three weeks in the patient administration department of a pop-up hospital in a tennis center in New York.
When he learned he had passed the Texas bar exam, John Kiraly was as excited and relieved as any law graduate.
But he might have been the only brand-new Texas lawyer to learn the happy news while volunteering at a New York pop-up hospital for COVID-19 patients.
For three weeks, Kiraly, a May 2019 graduate of the University of North Texas Dallas College of Law, has volunteered with a Florida-based private humanitarian company, Comprehensive Health Services, that’s staffing a field hospital in the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens. Kiraly, a U.S. Army veteran, is committed to volunteering there until the field hospital shuts down, however long that takes.
Texas Lawyer caught up with Kiraly over the phone to learn more about his volunteer work in the heart of America’s coronavirus outbreak. Here’s what he had to say.
A Houston Law Student Is Using 3D Printers To Help Healthcare Workers
Those on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic are benefiting from custom ear guards created by South Texas College of Law Houston student Jessica Livsey and her family on their four 3D printers.
Staying home like all of us, one Houston law student has found a way to make health care workers more comfortable while teaching her children about serving others.
Jessica Livsey, a rising third-year law student at South Texas College of Law Houston, has been working with her fiance and two children, who are 6 and 8 years old, to use the family’s 3D printers to manufacture “ear guards” for health care workers.ear guardCourtesy photo The doctors and nurses who are treating COVID-19 patients suffer from ear pain from the elastic straps on their face masks. An ear guard goes on the back of the head and holds the elastic straps away from the ears.
Be Honest: Who’s Litigating in Pajamas?
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Staying home during a global pandemic has brought out the casual in everyone, and South Florida lawyers are no exception. Normally suited and booted, many litigators are keeping their pajamas on now that COVID-19 has shut them out of the courthouse.
“In the beginning, I was still getting dressed and putting on a sport coat for those [client meetings], and I almost felt uncomfortable,” said Fort Lauderdale family attorney Brian Karpf of Young Berman Karpf & Gonzalez. “I’m sitting here at home with the video on, and the people that are coming to me, they’re certainly not dressed up, and if anything it almost makes them feel a little strange that I’m still dressed up, and they weren’t.”
Not Alone: How Law Firm Is Turning COVID-19 Isolation Into Team-Building Event
Mazzocca & Associates attorney Aigne Goldsby with her baby photo. Courtesy photo.
While many laws firms are canceling their corporate retreats amid the COVID-19 outbreak, one is using the opportunity to do all the same team-building exercises—but from home. Beginning in mid-March the three Connecticut attorneys and their paralegal at the Branford branch of Mazzocca & Associates have been getting to know their 17 colleagues—which includes 12 attorneys—in Westborough, Massachusetts. Working from home, they’re playing games together, such as guessing who’s who based on baby photos.
The ‘Small Silver Lining’ of COVID-19? Law Firms Are Teaming Up
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COVID-19 has brought plenty of bad news, but it’s also forging bonds among law firms that might normally be competitors.
Some South Florida firms have banded to create task forces aimed at helping commercial and individual clients in their time of need, while others are discovering new partnerships through internal collaborations.
Coral Gables attorney Luis Salazar has helped create the Florida Business Community Task Force, a pop-up service for local businesses worried about a flailing economy. The task force also includes professionals in accounting, marketing, finance and other sectors. What started with mini seminars on critical topics has expanded into pooling expertise to help particular clients.
Quarantine Cooking, Wills Through Windows: Lawyers Are Adapting to COVID-19 Rules
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Weeks after stay-home orders forced many attorneys to work from home, lawyers are coming up with creative ways to pass the time. They’re using their ingenuity to find solutions and see clients while remaining safe, and using technology to stay connected to their colleagues and lawyer-friends.
These strategies are key to easing the extra stress and anxiety that the coronavirus has brought.
Deals Made in a Garage: How Florida Attorneys Are Adjusting to the Pandemic
(l-r) Thomas Ringel, Jodi Colton, Stefan Chin, and David S. Henry.
Tom Ringel has been closing deals in an usual place: the garage of his Miami law firm.
It’s one of the ways the real estate attorney and founding shareholder of Markowitz Ringel Trusty + Hartog is adjusting to public efforts to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
“They close the windows and turn the AC on, so they are comfortable,” Ringel said. “I stand outside of the car with gloves and a mask, and call them from my cellphone to explain what they are signing. They listen on their car speaker and ask any questions that they might have.”
Stuck in Isolation, Lawyer Did Legal Analysis of Netflix’s ‘Tiger King’
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Stuck indoors under public policies to help curb the spread of the coronavirus, Connecticut lawyer Peter Bowman put his legal skills to work in a new way: posting video analyses of Netflix’s true-crime drama, “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness,” via Facebook and LinkedIn. As of Wednesday morning, more than 10,000 people had seen him on Facebook and more than 1,000 on LinkedIn.
“So I’m having a new obsession in the coronavirus self-isolation and social distancing,” he says in one video. “My wife and I are enjoying the show that everyone else is on Netflix: the ‘Tiger King.’ ”
Connecticut Attorney Helps Hospitals Secure Protective Equipment Amid COVID-19 Pandemic
Andrew Garza (left), co-owner of Connecticut Trial Firm LLC with (left to right) his son John, daughter Lexi, wife Jennifer, and daughter Lina. John is holding a homemade face mask the family made to be used by health personnel in Connecticut to fight COVID-19
In normal times, attorney Andrew Garza would be leading his small firm of four lawyers and six staff in helping clients prepare for litigation involving injury, product liability and workers’ compensation claims.
But since these are not normal times, the 32-year-old Farmington resident who co-owns the Connecticut Trial Firm said he decided to focus his efforts on helping hospitals restock ever-dwindling supplies in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen 1,012 cases and 21 deaths statewide as of Thursday afternoon.
Garza took to the company’s Facebook page Monday to announce he is looking for fellow citizens to make personal protective equipment, specifically by sewing disposable face masks.
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