To illustrate this point, I heard a story this week of a law firm partner checking in every day with every person in her team via Zoom.

These contacts covered some work matters but mostly were about sharing the fears, loss, grief and the black humour of the pandemic and the remote working experience. She said she encouraged her team members not to avoid interruptions from partners, kids and pets during the video calls.

The partner indicated her surprise as to how deeply personal the conversations had become – and how much closer she felt with her team members. Seeing her team members at home interacting with loved ones added a whole new level of understanding and appreciation of them as individuals.

She imagines a post-corona world with much deeper social connections – with staff and clients. Going through a crisis together can help engender trust and understanding, the foundations of all solid business-to-business relationships.

Less paper

Over the past decade many law firms have invested in sophisticated and expensive document management systems to reduce paper, streamline processes and improve control.

However, firms often don't realise the full benefits because a small group of lawyers, often senior partners, still prefer to edit in hard copy only and/or keep paper copies of everything.

The coronavirus has forced some law firm partners to change their rusted-on work habits in about one week.


When the hard-copy file is inaccessible and no assistant is at their side, only then will the penny really drop that a change is required and the painful process of stepping outside comfort zones will commence.

In a post-corona world, there will be less paper and greater compliance with

enterprise-wide systems. Allied to this there is likely to be more defined workflows, greater support for cloud-based applications and better use of deal platforms.

As legal process management expert Ron Friedman notes, “litigation and investigations have long employed [and co-located] armies of contract lawyers to review documents for responsiveness and privilege.

"The technology exists for secure, remote document review. Though supervision and collaboration may be harder working remotely, it does tap a much broader labour pool [and meet social distancing rules].”

More flexibility

Pre-corona, flexible working arrangements were mostly the exception rather than the rule in law land. The past two weeks have reversed this statistic.

The generally positive experience of meeting via video-conference, accessing files remotely, collaborating online on shared documents and engaging staff and clients virtually has brought a new realisation – that firms don’t need everyone at the office all the time.

If people want the option to work flexibly it can be done without destroying productivity or team dynamics.


While I don’t foresee a post-corona shift to complete remote working or agile office set-ups – offices with no allocated desks – I would expect firms to be far more comfortable with people seeking flexible work arrangements that include some regular-time working from outside the office.

However, remote working must be balanced with having a team congregate in one space to collaborate to solve complex client problems, to share knowledge and to socialise.

There is still no technological substitute for face-to-face interactions and the

serendipitous opportunities that come from overhearing conversations – and bumping into colleagues in corridors and kitchens.

The post-corona legal world will be very different. While there’s lots to fret about, there will also be some important positives.

Joel Barolsky is managing director of Barolsky Advisors and a senior fellow of The University of Melbourne.