At the end of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s critically acclaimed novel, “Love in the Time of Cholera,” two lovers are the last passengers on a ship that is about to dock at its final port on a river. The lovers ask the captain of the ship to raise the yellow flag of cholera so that the port will not allow the ship to dock, and the lovers can avoid the scandal of being seen together publicly. The lovers are then exiled to cruise the river forever because of the supposed cholera outbreak onboard the ship. Lawyers in the time of the corona similarly feel perhaps exiled forever from the law practice that existed before the onset of the deadly coronavirus, or COVID-19.

COVID-19 has sickened millions and killed hundreds of thousands, worldwide. COVID-19’s sudden appearance and the dramatic shutdown of the world in response to it have forced quarantines, shuttered businesses, and thrown markets and the economy into dizzying tailspins. COVID-19 also has been fertile ground for lawsuits of all types.