Washington Lawyer - July/August 2020 - 14

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

FEATURE

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP Chief Operating Officer Jane Koehl, along with her dog Buddy, read Excellent Ed to parents and their children during
the firm's story hour. Twice a week Faegre Drinker employees take turns reading books to help parents balance childcare and work.
Law firms in general have been early adopters of remote work, says
Laurel Farrer, head of the nonprofit Remote Work Association. Since legal
work is knowledge-based, law firms are "prime candidates for accepting
remote work at a much higher level than, say, manufacturing," she notes.
"Our hope is that they'll embrace it as a strategy but understand that
remote work is not all or nothing." In other words, the strongest firms
will be the ones that can customize their approach to a combination
of onsite and virtual work.
The pandemic has also created an odd mix of both too much and not
enough work. Practice areas such as employment, corporate and securities law, government relations, finance, and FDA-related practices have
been full-steam ahead. Litigators, on the other hand, have had to face
closed courtrooms, almost no in-person depositions, and suspended
trials. The U.S. Supreme Court ventured into new terrain in May when
it heard oral arguments by telephone.
One firm that has been watching, with a sense of irony, the mad scramble
to go virtual is FisherBroyles, LLP, which has operated remotely since its
founding 18 years ago. The firm's 251 partners work out of their home
offices, sometimes renting temporary spaces for meetings.
"We've been doing this for a while, not just because we want to work
from home [or that] we don't want to have contact with other people,"
says Anthony "T. J." DoVale, managing partner for intellectual property.
It saves the clients money. After all, he asks, "Who pays for those big
offices?"

WASHINGTON LAWYER

JULY/AUGUST 2020

"We removed all the inefficiencies in the practice of law and just do what
the client wants us to do," DoVale says. DoVale's own paralegal assistant
lives in New York, even though he is based in Atlanta. They connect
through email, video conferencing, and phone calls. "She loves the
freedom of working her 8 to 10 hours at any point during the day, and
I can get in touch [with her] at any time," DoVale says.

HEEDING THE WARNING SIGNS
Many D.C. firms had the advantage of foresight thanks to having offices
outside the District. For instance, firms with West Coast offices have
always had to plan for earthquakes, fires, and other natural disasters.
Michael Kelly, a San Francisco-based partner with Squire Patton Boggs,
says the firm's California offices have long stockpiled food, water,
blankets, and other supplies in case an earthquake or other disaster
forces employees to shelter in place. As it became clear that employees
would be staying home during the pandemic, the firm began distributing laptops to its legal secretaries, clerks, and other support staff ahead
of the governor's March 19 work-from-home order. "Thankfully, we got
it done in time," says Kelly.
The international firm Harris Bricken, which has offices on the West Coast
as well as in Barcelona and Beijing, went fully remote on March 5, which
was "maybe the earliest" of U.S. firms, says founder Dan Harris.
Because of the firm's China connection, "we've been dealing with the
coronavirus since December, so we knew it was very real," Harris says.

Washington Lawyer - July/August 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Washington Lawyer - July/August 2020