Pandemic Recovery

There’s always an opportunity with a crisis. Just as it forces an individual to look inside himself, it forces a company to reexamine its policies and practices.

Many of the changes the pandemic forced on law firms have become a new, and sometimes better, way of operating. Rather than returning to pre-pandemic habits, firms are building strategies around what they learned. A recovery plan is worth having, and it should incorporate those lessons.

The plan should establish practices that let attorneys respond to unexpected change, interpret the issue and propose solutions. Implement it the way you plan a case. Prepare. Plan. Enact. Respond. If necessary, rebuild.

Your Firm’s Plan Should

1) Build up your technology: Remote work, virtual conferencing and new software became an essential part of the practice, and much of what firms were forced to adopt proved worth keeping. Keep what works and build on it.

2) Diversify your firm’s services: A boutique or niche practice concentrates expertise, but a sudden economic change can hit it hard. Diversifying strengthens the firm’s ability to withstand pressure.

3) Build on what the disruption produced: From new marketing to remote work and virtual appearances, distinguish what was a temporary necessity from what actually drove growth.

4) Emphasize relationships within the firm: From communication strategies for in-office and remote work to cross-functional collaboration, put the priority on your attorneys and staff. Build a flexible system that encourages innovation and self-management, and gives people authority to match their responsibility. Recognize achievement. Retention has always depended on it.

5) Promote work-life balance: The isolation and uncertainty of that period took a toll on mental health. A culture that supports balance, and encourages people to support each other and to seek professional help when they need it, strengthens the whole firm.

6) Create an engaging client experience: Listen to your clients, support their objectives and celebrate their successes. They lived through the same disruption you did, and they notice who reached out.

A global crisis affects every business, the legal industry included. Responding to new circumstances, while recognizing which changes should be permanent, is what carries a firm through and out the other side.

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

There’s always an opportunity with a crisis. Just as it forces an individual to look inside himself, it forces a company to reexamine its policies and practices.

Judy Smith