The coronavirus outbreak is affecting law firms in profound ways and represents an inflection point for how law firms survive unplanned disruptions. Across the United States, school systems are announcing closures and businesses are asking employees to work from home. The economic effects of these disruptions, especially on small and midsize firms, can be significant.

Similarly, natural disasters, like the tornadoes that tore through Tennessee last month, displace people from their homes and workplaces. Workers are forced to find alternate locations with electricity and a Wi-Fi connection; or businesses scramble to restore on-premise technology by moving computing infrastructure to higher ground, figuratively speaking, in a short period of time. Natural disasters can cost law firms, not necessarily from physical damage, but from a cessation of business functions for several days.