6 Adaptive Behaviors for the Remote Office
Good technology can move your legal office in the right direction. However, successful teams are also undergoing a dramatic cultural shift.
Not only do these changes support remote workers, but they can also enhance productivity, profitability, and work-life balance for all firms.
1. Embrace Centralization
When everyone’s in the same office together, people might be able to get away with following their own idiosyncratic systems for scheduling, research, and client communication. But a culture of centralization brings coherence to a dispersed workforce.
Centralized systems and legal workflows keep the team accountable to each other, making sure no tasks slip through the cracks. Performance dashboards clarify the workload of different firm members, while centralized scheduling platforms help you understand each others’ availability throughout the week.
One easy way to adopt centralization is to invest in a coherent legal operating core. But even if your firm patches together various systems, they can achieve firm-wide buy-in to a shared central process.
Centralization allows for greater collaboration. Beyond giving a boost to remote legal workers, this move to collaboration will position firms to succeed amid the increasing complexity of legal work. As this shared centralized process is adopted, be sure to fully document how things work at the firm. This will help future new hires to quickly understand the shared central process and collaborate effectively with other employees.
2. Extend Security Vigilance
Changes in your workflow can open up new security vulnerabilities. Lawyers working on personal devices and home or public Wi-Fi connections raise a new set of concerns for law firms focused on protecting their clients’ information and maintaining client confidentiality.
Ensure that any Wi-Fi connections that you use are trusted. This means that you should only connect to wireless networks that use strong encryption such as WPA2 PSK instead of the older WEP or WPA protocols. If a trusted Wi-Fi network is not available, consider using your smartphone’s personal hotspot, following the strong passphrase guidance previously mentioned in this guide.
To enable remote work, firms must not only rely on secure technology but also inculcate a healthy security culture into their daily work. The transition to remote work is a key time to update security protocol and training materials. Remote workers need to be trained about keeping their devices encrypted, managing their passwords, using only authorized, firm-approved software, and physically securing their devices.
The Firm should ensure they are updating and reviewing their information security policies, procedures, and privacy statements to incorporate new threats from the internet and adversaries that wish to cause reputational or financial harm. This includes extreme care for Accounting staff or Accounts Payable (AP) employees to ensure they remain very diligent when making any changes to existing methods performing wire or electronic funds transfers, or SWIFT system payments.
In addition, take time to train all firm employees on how to spot email phishing attempts, avoid unsafe websites, and avert attempts at social engineering. Insecure email and password reuse attacks remain the most common threat vector for firms that lead to a data breach. Ensure email is protected with DMARC, DKIM, SPF, and MFA. If you do not know what these are, make sure your IT team or outsourced IT service providers do this for you.
3. Gain Greater Competence Around Video Conferencing
Remote legal workers need to stay socially connected across distance. This goes beyond the specific technology they employ, and into their abilities as facilitators in a medium that may feel awkward.
- Use the camera feature on your calls and encourage others to do so as well. It allows you to read each others’ body language and creates a deeper connection. It also discourages ‘tuning out’ in meetings because others can see your own facial responses. As a by-product, it encourages everyone to maintain a professional appearance, which can have a positive effect on remote workers' morale.
- Don’t take it for granted that people will practice the right online meeting etiquette. Take a little time to train everyone on basic usage, so everyone knows how and when to mute and unmute themselves, how to chime in and ask questions, and how to use other features that are included in your video conferencing platform
- Stick to an agenda. If participants are drifting off into a tangent, gently but firmly direct the conversation back to the point at hand. Everyone will appreciate your ability to stay on target and conclude meetings on time
- Sticking to an agendadoesn’t mean being robotic or harsh. Begin meetings with a brief icebreaker. This will help people connect on a more human level and get the ball rolling. If you don't have any good questions in mind, pull one off of for remote worker socializing this list
- Consider scheduling some weekly or monthly ‘water cooler’ talk, where everyone can connect as people rather than strictly as workers. There are even games specifically designed for remote work socializing
Know when to pick up the phone or have a one-on-one meeting for de-escalation. Working across distance, we might not understand the body language and intention behind each message. Address tension or misunderstandings early on, before they escalate into harsher
negative feelings.
- Reframe home-based distractions. If meetings with those who work from home are interrupted by children or pets, take a moment to admire and celebrate this glimpse into someone’s life, and then refocus on the issue at hand
- Secure the Meeting. New video conferencing applications have new security features to lock the meeting, provide secure passcodes to enter the meeting, make audible sounds to alert the meeting organizer of new attendees, and provide other security features to ensure meeting attendees are the intended parties. Becoming familiar with these settings will help employees follow best practices for meeting security.
4. Create Protocols Around Messaging And Response Times
For many legal professionals, the biggest change with remote work is the way they receive messages. Rather than quick check-ins and chats at the office, they now receive all that information through phone calls, texts, emails, instant messages, and new updates and notes on their case management system.
Law offices need to think hard about how this change will affect their team members. An overflow of messages, and the expectation for immediate response, can lead to higher stress and anxiety, and decreased job satisfaction. Neurologists have found that frequent phone multitasking might even erode our brains. Reduced grey-matter in the anterior cingulate cortex of phone multitaskers makes it harder to make decisions and control impulses. Some countries have even passed right-to-disconnect laws, which ban bosses from sending work-related messages after hours.
However, many decisions are time-sensitive. How can you ensure prompt responses for urgent issues— without driving everyone to distraction? By creating clear expectations around sending and responding to messages. These will be different for every firm, but here are some ideas:
- To cause the fewest distractions, communicate as much as possible through the case management system. Try to move all updates into your digital case notes, so people can address new tasks and questions on their own time, as part of their workflow. Adding deadlines to those needs helps each member prioritize incoming information.
- Schedule a daily teleconference check-in for legal teams, and encourage members to bring up questions then, rather than cluttering inboxes throughout the day.
- Avoid communicating through email where possible. The risk of user error with email is incredibly high, such as when you send an email to the wrong person or a client sends a confidential message in a ‘reply all.’ Hackers and spear-phishers are increasingly sophisticated and increasingly targeting law firms. And an overflowing inbox increases the chances of missing a message completely. When emails are necessary, follow all security protocols.
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is a tool provided in most cloud email systems which allows the firm to designate attachments containing Sensitive Personal Information (SPI) such as national ID numbers, Social Security Numbers, and other confidential data and flag it or prevent it from being sent outside of the firm. Using DLP can greatly reduce the risk of accidental data exposure via email.
- Create sensible response time expectations for important emails. This will allow anxious overachievers to relax, knowing they don’t have to immediately respond to emails that come in late at night.
- Clarify expectations for messaging apps. Collaboration apps like Microsoft Teams and Slack allow group discussions to take place in different channels. These include both important work discussions and ‘just for fun’ channels to socialize and build comradery across distance. Make sure everyone understands which are which, and the attention expected from them. Avoid making important team decisions through messaging apps, since those who are focusing on other issues at the moment won’t be able to contribute their thoughts.
- Reserve phone calls, direct instant messages, and texts only for time-sensitive issues.
- Preserve all important information and data. Avoid sanctions for spoliation of evidence. Add emails and text messages in the relevant case files.
For further ideas on establishing etiquette of workplace chat apps, check out the Slack Etiquette Guide created by Zapier, an app integration company that has been fully remote since 2011.
5. Get Serious About Disaster Management Plans
Lawyers are trained to obsess over worst-case scenarios and create tools to protect themselves and their clients from harm. With this skillset, it’s surprising that many firms did not have adequate disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity plans (BCP) in place when the 2020s working conditions hit.
For those still scrambling with a plan, here are a few resources:
Whether a firm is dealing with a catastrophe or a small, localized flood that has shut down their office for the week, the tools enabling remote work can be a key part of a coherent disaster management plan. Creating a plan is just the beginning. Even firms that have developed an extensive DR or BCP plan often fail to follow it or can’t even find it when disaster strikes. Amid the chaos, make sure to create time to evaluate your response, build better solutions into future drafts and ensure the plans are available remotely and securely via the cloud if the office is physically shut down.
6. Create New Guidelines Around the Remote Office
Remote work brings its own set of distractions and disconnection. It requires new habits to stay focused, professional, and connected to others—while maintaining their work-life balance.
Law offices should clarify expectations around availability and overtime with their remote workers. Though remote work allows for greater flexibility, law offices should clarify if there are specific core business hours they want all members available. They can also set out expectations for professional appearance and behavior in teleconferences with clients and colleagues.
In addition to official policy, a culture of routine and discipline can help individual workers stay productive. For those working from home, tested tips for a daily routine may include:
- Take care of personal hygiene before jumping on your computer. Resist the temptation to immediately jump on your computer, and instead shower and brush your teeth first.
- Make your bed.
- Change out of your pajamas and into clothes that remind you that you’re a professional.
- Establish work goals for your day.
- Actively identify and avoid distractions (whether it’s external distractions from others in your home or the internal urge to check social media).
- For those who are caring for children while they’re trying to work from home, creating a more flexible schedule can allow for childcare during the day. Sometimes this can mean saving certain tasks for early morning, nap time, or after their bedtime. Temper expectations of rigid routines and perfectly clean houses. Also look for online help, like virtual playdates, creative activities, fun movement and exercise guides, and media content for kids of working parents.
- Engage with one difficult and important task before checking your email.
- Leave time in the day to exercise.
- Schedule regular breaks to go outside and see sunlight.
- At the end of the day, analyze what you’ve accomplished.
- Close your computer and tidy your workspace.
- Close the door to your office (if you have one) and
- Focus on connecting with your loved ones and caring for your personal well-being.
Many of these practices first became imperative for firms with the 2020s working conditions. Shifting the culture to enable remote work has the potential to improve legal work for many in the long term. Allowing remote work at law firms can give lawyers greater flexibility, a deeper engagement with their family, and save on commuting time (which means more time for wellness activities like exercise). For society at large, reduced travel means fewer emissions and less street congestion and noise. The firm reaps the rewards of increased worker productivity among remote workers, as well as reductions in operational expenses such as real estate leases as office space needs decrease.
Developing Your Voice as a Firm
Remote legal work is a valuable capability in times of crises, big and small. But as the legal team disperses across remote locations, they must maintain a unified voice. This means creating a Crisis or Disaster communication team. The speed of messaging is crucial, which means the team needs to be small, agile, and with full authority to speak for the firm.
When a crisis hits, people are desperate for guidance, reassurance, detailed instructions, and honesty. This is the most important time for firms to communicate their values and vision. Finding the right ways to express resilience, strength, and compassion can help firms gain loyal team members and long-lasting community trust for the years ahead.
Part 1: External Communication
In the example of 2020s working conditions, courts closed, deadlines were deferred, and many struggled to pay their legal bills. This only increased the responsibility to communicate with clients.
When it comes to communicating in a crisis, approach it from the perspective of your clients. What do they need to know from you right now? What are the problems they’re experiencing? Every message should center around their needs.
- Are you still open?
- Are you accepting new clients?
- What services are you providing?
- How can you best be reached?
- Do you offer remote services? If so what kind?
- What precautions are you taking to keep your clients and community safe?
- Where can clients get the best updates regarding health and safety recommendations?
- How can we help you?
There are a number of locations where you can disseminate this information. Use automatic document generation to create personalized emails for all clients. Create your own disaster-specific webpage and link to it from a banner on your homepage. Post on social media.
Create helpful blog posts addressing common questions your clients might have. Update your Google, My Business profile with new hours and contact information. In addition to widespread messaging, you’ll need to connect with clients regarding how the crisis will affect the status of pending matters and cases. Determine how you wish to discuss financial concerns with worried clients as well, as financial and social turmoil can leave many clients strapped for cash.
Part 2: Internal Communication
How you communicate with lawyers and support staff during a crisis will also shape your success in the months and years that follow. Prompt and compassionate communication will encourage a stronger bond among coworkers and greater long-term loyalty to the firm.
Ideally, you already have a communication plan in place that you can follow. If not, quickly create a strategy for regular, prompt, and clear communication about expectations and policies.
This might be a dedicated channel in your messaging app just for important announcements. Some firms and businesses have developed information hubs or wikis to...
Keep people informed. If employees know what to expect with a communication strategy, they will also be less likely to fall for harmful phishing scams.
Communicate quickly, even in the face of uncertainty. You might be tempted to wait until more definitive information comes through before you reach out. But even amid uncertainty, your team needs to know that their firm is at least working on answers. When you provide updated policies and expectations, make sure you also explain the context around them. Share which trusted sources helped you make your decisions. Build unity around a shared concern for those outside of the firm as well—your families and community.
Examine your firm’s legal obligations to workers. Consider all the workplace protections enshrined in the NLRA, OSHA, and ADA. The Society of Human Resource Management can also provide useful guidance. In the case of the 2020s working conditions, the Society of Human Resource Management put together several specific resources for employers, while the CDC published its own interim guidance for employers.
Be mindful of the way your treatment of support staff may differ from your treatment of lawyers. Are some being asked to endanger their health and well-being, while others are immediately allowed to work from home? Writing for Above the Law, Molly McDonough reminds us
Treating support staff as second-class citizens is a mistake. And how firms communicate with and treat their workers—all workers—will define them and reverberate for months and years to come.
When the crisis abates, take what you learn from your experiences with internal and external messaging, and update your disaster and crisis communication plan so it’s available to your firm in future events.
Watching The Next Curve Ahead
Under the shadow of 2020s working conditions, law firms are transforming their industry. They are making dramatic changes to their practice precisely at the time when they cannot physically convene to make new plans, are under increased financial pressure, and face the added stress brought on by 2020 working conditions and social quarantine rules.
The situation is similar to that described by the Austrian philosopher Otto Neurath a century ago: “We are like sailors who on the open sea must reconstruct their ship but are never able to start afresh from the bottom.”
The reason we still dare call this a ‘No-Panic Guide’ is because lawyers are proving they have better tools at their disposal than ever before. No one is predicting easy years ahead for the legal industry, but with careful focus and smart changes, many firms will be able to weather these storms.
We’ve made this guide to serve legal professionals as they transform their industry. Chapter 1 focuses on specific tools and technologies law firms can use to transition to a remote workforce. Chapter 2 makes recommendations for changes to firm culture and behavior to better support remote work. Finally, Chapter 3 addresses specific ways to better serve clients and your workforce while working remotely in times of crisis.
Through the months and years ahead, whatever happens with the state of the world, remote work will remain a key facet of the legal industry. We hope this guide is helpful as lawyers renovate their practice—one plank at a time.