It’s been more than 15 weeks since COVID-19 hit pause on what seems like the entire world. When firms were in the thick of it, dealing with government-mandated office closures, I wrote an article about how law firms could navigate the delicacies that came with the global pandemic. In March, we were paralyzed as we began quarantined life only to be shocked to our cores in late May as our nation became embroiled in social unrest due to continued systemic racism that can no longer be tolerated. Fast forward to now as the country begins to slowly reemerge from quarantine and reevaluate our fundamental values and beliefs that got us to where we are today. Law firms and other businesses alike are defining what will become our new normal. Challenges facing us in 2019, while seemingly very distant, deserve attention in addition to the new obstacles our firms face during what may be a temporary flattening of the COVID-19 curve. Here are four areas that law firms must continue to address to remain on the right side of 2020:

Reopening of Office Space and Managing Client Expectations

As an update to my last article that outlined the various stringent requirements firms have to implement for a safe return to work, there are a few other issues that firms should now consider as well. Many firms around the country jumped at their first opportunities to have offices reopen and become fully staffed. At Griesing Law, we are taking a different approach. The health and well-being of our entire team and their families is our number-one priority. Yes, we are fortunate that pre-COVID-19, most of our team was already enabled with the tools for remote work. When the forced closures hit, we had very minor hiccups in getting those last few team members onboarded with the right tools to work remotely.  Today, even though the closure order has been lifted, we continue to be fully remote. It’s critical for us as a firm to support our team while still supporting our clients and communities. For us, client service has not waivered regardless of the location of our team.  As client customer service issues in recent years have caused many clients to jump ship from their firms, it’s important for law firms now to continue to strive to meet client demands despite office disruptions.

Reevaluating Budgets and Partner Compensation