Blending Work and Home:
Remote Work in this New Era By Rebecca Jones We all remember March 2020 – how we were suddenly forced to adjust our work lives for the two-week window, when we thought that we would just need to work from home for a short period of time and get back into our offices by April. That two-week window kept expanding, and soon many firms began looking at how to make remote practice functional until California could fully reopen. Here we are, 20 months later, asking ourselves whether the remote practice is here to stay. What has evolved since that initial time, however, has been the adaptation by many to embrace this remote environment and make it work. In the legal setting, the creative strategies have seen no boundaries. According to a poll conducted by Pew Research in December 2020, 71% of employed adults were working from home, but only 57% of those polled stated that concerns of exposure to the COVID-19 virus were the driving force behind their decision to work remotely. This leads one to wonder what other factors might be keeping workers at home, and the significant factors repeatedly raised are convenience, flexibility, and increased acceptance to break the mold of the traditional office.
At the beginning of this pandemic, firms had to quickly adapt from reliance on in-office computers and hard drives. With the many options available to streamline the firm into a cloud-based setting, firms have been able to pick and choose what might work best for them. The use of an answering service eliminates the need for a person to be present to answer calls each day, and therefore lessens that tie to an office. Others have adapted practice to meeting with clients entirely via video conferencing, which hardly requires the use of the traditional office. In addition, personnel meetings on platforms like Zoom, Google Hangouts, and Microsoft Teams eliminate the requirement of the physical conference room. Many have been able to utilize Dropbox and other cloudbased storage systems to do away with the need for the physical hard drive in the office. While utilizing technology requires additional ethical considerations on the attorney’s part, it is also hard to argue against any model which allows you the opportunity to wear sweatpants all day. (For further information, please visit the State Bar’s Ethics & Technology Resources page: https:// www.calbar.ca.gov/Attorneys/ Conduct-Discipline/Ethics/EthicsTechnology-Resources)
Many firms are choosing a hybrid model, either rotating staff on certain days or allowing employees flexibility to work remotely as it suits them. Cheryl Kozachenko, an attorney practicing in multiple counties, has had the benefit of enjoying a personal choice within her firm as to whether she wants to work at home or in office. To allow all employees to advantage of this, that firm increased their technology, ensuring that all remote workers have computers which have access to programs and servers, and allowing for calls into the office to ring directly through to their cell phones at home. For Cheryl, this has let her maximize her productivity while her children are in school, while making her available for them at the same time. The hybrid firm appears to be the “new normal” for many firms. Other firms have embraced the remote model in full, working hundreds of miles from where the businesses are based. Marta Vanegas shared that she has actually been working towards a cloudbased model for years, with COVID giving her the push to fully integrate this into her practice. In fact, due to this flexibility she has had the opportunity to hire a new senior counsel who can work both in Cali-
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