President's Message

Bridging the social distance after pandemic isolation

By Kate McGrath Ellis | State Bar of Montana President

As the April issue of the Montana Lawyer goes to press, Montana is making COVID-19 vaccines available to everyone over age 16. With that development comes the promise of a return to “normal work” and perhaps an opportunity to begin to draw some lessons from the last year of remote work, delayed trials, Zoom depositions and a year away from colleagues.

That last item, the distance that the pandemic created in our own workplaces and among professional colleagues, including even those with whom we frequently interact with as opposing counsel, is perhaps one of the more difficult impacts to gauge.

More senior members of the profession often lament to me about newer members who forgo telephone communication for email, and sometimes even text messages. To some degree, that was probably also the case when the fax letter entered the profession’s mindset decades ago, a not insignificant evolution over a letter delivered by U.S. Mail.

However, add in a global pandemic and the effect of these changing styles of communication are magnified, presenting both opportunities for quick, remote collaboration – think Teams, Slack and the like – while at the same time further stretching the time between authentic,

human connection. Don’t we all experience “Zoom fatigue” now, often glued to our screens for hours of endless meetings without so much as a cup of coffee between colleagues? Long gone are the days when grabbing doughnuts for everyone on the way into work created fun break room conversations.

A recent Harvard Business Review article by three Microsoft executives – Nancy Baym, senior principal research manager, Jonathan Larson, principal data architect, and Ronnie Martin who leads Microsoft’s efforts around the future of work communications – discussed how all this change has affected work environments. The authors noted the importance of social capital in the workplace, which they define as the benefits you get from knowing people. Citing Microsoft’s annual Work Trends Index, they said remote work has resulted in a marked decrease in workplace relationships and that younger workers who are new to the workplace may be feeling social isolation more.

That should have us thinking about our own legal organizations, law firms, governmental organizations, nonprofits, in-house counsel shops, and even the profession as a whole. One can quickly

discern that new lawyers, many of whom experienced a significant part of law school in a remote setting, are entering the legal profession with reduced social capital at an already challenging time in their careers.

Thus, as we begin returning to “normal” work after this historic pandemic,

it seems a good time for those of us with established connections, friendships and professional relationships to renew our efforts to reconnect with the newer members of our firm and our profession. Those of us who have been at this a while understand that is often the relationships we form, and not just the technical skills we possess, that help most in meeting our clients’ legal needs.

And if you have been feeling isolated, why not take the initiative? Make a list you would like to connect with – a 3L you looked up to as a first year, a seasoned colleague in your organization, or someone you have worked with or against who influenced you positively – and contact someone each day.

Ultimately, reaching out to new lawyers and checking in on old friends in the coming months will only serve to benefit our collective success.

Kate McGrath Ellis is a staff attorney with the Montana Auditor’s Office in Helena.