Stories of COVID-19 & Beyond

STORIES OF COVID-19 AND BEYOND By: Arrin “A.Z.” Zadeh

Partner, Oberman and Rice Law Firm

KEEPING THE DOORS OPEN DURING THE DARK DAYS OF COVID

When I was asked to write an article about a criminal defense law firm’s experiences during the horrible COVID pandemic, a lot of different thoughts entered my mind once I sat down to start the process. Some of these thoughts were of the paralyzing fear of the COVID pandemic roaring through our community—not just the legal community, but hitting the citizens of Knox County with gut punch after gut punch. I recall seeing the numbers of the sick rising at a supersonic rate. My thoughts then trickle back to my firm and how we handled the situation. Even though it was almost one and a half years ago when the pandemic really picked up steam, it really feels like just yesterday we started the preparations for navigating our law firm during a pandemic and attempting to overcome the many ever-changing obstacles. During the pandemic, the issues were not isolated to the deadly virus—making sure we operated our law firm in a manner to keep our partners and staff safe and healthy, but included trying to do our best to keep the doors to our firm open to help the many people in need of our services.

I recall being in a meeting with my law partners, Steve and Sara, and the conversation turned to how we were going to be able to manage our firm in the event of a county-wide shut down due to the virus. In case you lived under a rock, for several months (at different points) our community and profession faced shutdowns. As most readers of this article can attest, in conference rooms across Knox County and across the country, lawyers gathered to discuss strategies on how to protect the health of the lawyers, staff, and family, while still keeping the law firm financially intact.

At Oberman and Rice, we had to quickly learn how to answer phone calls remotely, have our IT team help the lawyers and staff set up for home consultations via Zoom or Microsoft teams, ensure that communication with existing clients (and future clients) was effective, and of course, try to ensure all of the day to day activities of our law firm were being handled with the health and security of our employees at the top of the list. For example, we were able to work with a rotation of lawyers and staff being at the office at certain times to help avoid any potential spread of the virus. The rotation also ensured that our entire staff would not be quarantined should a single member of the firm contract the virus. Masks were constantly required, and they still are required if the potential client has not been vaccinated. As a firm, we all had to adapt to the new culture of working off site while still remembering that effective and timely communication with our clients still took precedence. In other words, the pandemic really ushered in a new age of “how-to” work and effectively represent clients through remote and onsite techniques.

Furthermore, because of the COVID pandemic, life in the courthouse also changed. For those of you who regularly practice in Knox County, the big plastic plexiglass barriers that have been installed to help prevent the spread of the virus made the court rooms look like the inside of a hockey rink. The barriers, however, served a purpose, as did the mandate for masks to be worn in all court rooms. Additionally, courts now handle more situations with a video feed instead of in-person interactions. As our law firm was rolling with the punches, so was the court system and all of the employees who help keep the legal system oiled and chugging along. If you step back and think about it, it is truly impressive how law firms and the court system adapted and remained open to the public (for the most part) while trying to ensure the due process rights of the citizens of Knox County.

In a way, the pandemic really forced law firms to jump ahead in how they viewed technology, and I believe really helped foster a more efficient means of running a law firm. I know from our experience at Oberman and Rice that we still take advantage of Zoom meetings with potential clients. We still incorporate features of our “remote” tools to help utilize our effectiveness, representation and communication abilities with our clients. And we have really formed an even more tight familial bond going through the trials and tribulations of the pandemic. For those who know me, I tend to be a bit cliché at times. I feel that the pandemic really brought private lawyers/law firms together because everyone went through the same pain, fears, and struggles… yet, persevered through all of it and in my opinion, all of us are much stronger for staying the course.

With the light (hopefully) at the end of the tunnel and restrictions slowly starting to be lifted, most people agree that criminal defense firms (as well as many other businesses in the area) will see things slowly get back to normal. So long as we can stay vigilant against the variant strains, things seem to finally be looking up. From my experience at the Oberman and Rice Law Firm, with a little planning, and being open to learning new technologies (and staying positive), we were able to get through that horrible blip that was the COVID pandemic and we look forward to a new phase.