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A week or two before her high school graduation, my oldest daughter decided to go vegan. To accommodate my daughter’s new diet, our family celebrated her graduation at a vegan restaurant that served dishes like lasagna and chicken parmigiana by substituting yeast and soy protein for cheese, eggs, and meat. However, despite the chef’s efforts to replicate the traditional dishes, the festive lunch looked like a mess and didn’t taste as satisfying.
Hoping to avoid a similar experience at my daughter’s backyard graduation party later that week, I decided to try my hand at making my own instead of ordering a vegetarian meal. Instead of trying to make creamy or cheesy dishes with non-dairy ingredients (back then the smell of nutritional yeast still made me nauseous), I made dishes that didn’t contain dairy to begin with – falafel, macaroni salad, vegetarian rice paper. Rolls and guacamole. And I invested in the best quality ingredients to increase my chances of producing an edible result. In the end, the spread was a success – all the food was eaten or taken home by the guests. I’ve even used the same menu in one form or another at other parties since then – although my daughter has long since given up a strict vegetarian diet.
Now I find myself reflecting on my brief experience in vegan cooking and eating as many attorneys try to use Zoom, the cloud, and other online tools to replicate work and network, as I once did in those activities. We had a company before the pandemic. But for many, these tools are smoother than the faux Italian vegan food I suffered through years ago. Anyway, let’s face it: drinking a beer alone at your desk lit by camera lights in your face while you try to make it to a 15-person virtual happy hour when your computer isn’t on lag. Say a word. Like laughing with the group in person at a dimly lit restaurant table or cozy neighborhood bar. Asking employees or paralegals to check in daily from home via video can be intrusive or difficult, while short face-to-face meetings in the office to resolve issues are somehow less intimidating. Arguing over the phone may certainly be more efficient, but lawyers also lose the ability to stare at the judge or shake hands with their opponents at the end of the argument.
However, my reservations about whether online tools can recreate the pre-pandemic experience don’t mean I believe for a second that we should stop using them. But instead of using technology to replicate our old experience, let’s use it to improve the way we do things and create an improved experience. Here are some ideas:
• Use Zoom for new activities Instead of using Zoom for a standard happy hour, use it to interact with colleagues in ways you’ve never done before. For example, two weeks ago, I sponsored a Coffee + Court event on Zoom and invited a dozen colleagues to join us to listen to an en banc oral argument for an important case in our industry. I opened the call with a preview of the discussion and hoped to share the results with my colleagues after the discussion. Unfortunately (and my bad), the call got hacked mid-way – a problem easily remedied next time with enhanced security. But the idea itself made sense—Zoom provided a platform for me and my colleagues to discuss the argument in real time (something we couldn’t do in an IRL courtroom), and I hope to reschedule a similar call in the future. to tear
Zoom can also support other types of recreational activities that you might want to participate in with your coworkers, but never had the time. From online painting classes to writing thank-you notes to cooking classes or watching a law-related movie, video can help bring colleagues closer in a way that many of us might not have bothered with when we were able to leave the house.
• Zoom for legal employees When I found out that my summer law clerk would have to work remotely, I was concerned because I usually get better results with my on-site staff. There is something about the discipline of being in the office in business clothes and being able to sit together and review documents that has improved the performance of those who work for me. But I have found that zoom has its advantages. I can share pages and show my paralegal how to digitize a document, or we can review, markup, and edit a document together. Sure, these tools were already available when people were working onsite, but communicating with employees via video when they’re sitting just an office away seemed difficult.
• Zoom and deposition As I learned from my video interviews with 14 small firm and sole proprietorship attorneys, transferring deposits to Zoom is a bit complicated. On the one hand, video depositions save travel time and penalize attorneys for collecting documents in advance, which may need to be sent to witnesses in advance. On the other hand, some attorneys lament the inability to communicate with witnesses and read their body language, while others worry that opposing counsel may be coaching the witness through a chatbot or text. All are fair reminders that Zoom can’t always replicate pre-pandemic performance.
However, there is one way that Zoom — for all its potential drawbacks — could improve the litigation process: by eliminating the need for court reporters once and for all. Zoom allows attorneys to bypass the need for court reporters, as depositions can be recorded with the click of a button and then transcribed through AI tools like Otter.ai or Sonix.ai. Using Zoom as a one-stop platform for depositions allows attorneys to save on the huge costs of transcripts in civil cases that are a barrier to access to justice. If that’s not a huge improvement over the current system, I don’t know what is.
• Alternative dispute resolution and online hearings With so many trials going on right now, many law firms have an opportunity, while many clients are eager to settle. While I would never suggest we pressure clients into low-settlement at this juncture, there are opportunities during the pandemic to experiment with online mediation and alternative dispute resolution—especially for cases that have already gone to trial. Attorneys should work with opposing counsel, as well as judges who may want to expunge their records, to explore unconventional ways to resolve cases — such as small trials or taking cases before mediators. The data collected can be used to inform the development of new processes in the future.
Online hearings are another alternative that increases advocacy. Instead of trapping attorneys in a room for hours waiting for a status announcement, attorneys can schedule conferences from their desks, saving on travel and waiting time—which cuts costs for clients. Many scheduling conferences don’t even require face-to-face interaction, so moving conferences online doesn’t compromise quality, it only provides net benefits.
• Shift work In the past eight weeks of the pandemic, lawyers have found ways to work from home — and while it’s certainly frustrating, many lawyers are celebrating the time they’ve regained from not commuting. I’m not advocating that law firms go 100% remote, as many attorneys and staff work more effectively out of home. But there is a happy hybrid medium that I wrote about yesterday — shift work — where attorneys and staff can seamlessly switch between working on-site and from home with just a few modest schedule changes. Top? A more relaxed workforce with a better ability to accommodate clients whose schedules are also changing.
If we emerge from the pandemic and expect the world to return to normal, many of us will be sorely disappointed because the online experience cannot replicate life as we knew it. But if we’re going to use technology not to replicate old ways, but to create new ways to advocate that are even better, we’ll have something as delicious as the vegetarian dish I made for my daughter’s high school graduation. enjoy.
