Page 9 - Delaware Lawyer - Fall 2020

palpable anxiety from senior attorneys unused to working remotely), was hard to bear. As months went by, some things got easier; some didn’t. In our house, with two working parents, child care may always be a challenge. Over time, we have developed a schedule that “works,” in the loosest sense of the word, but we will never again take for granted the luxury of reliable assistance.1
What has noticeably improved, though, is the Delaware legal commu- nity’s embrace of remote working. Of necessity, the prehistoric concept of “face time” is gone, at least for now. Firms have provided attorneys with better phones, monitors and printers, and have, for the most part, worked out the kinks associated with remote access. Care- giving resources — webinars and CLEs to support attorneys working remotely while caring for children and elderly parents — appear in my inbox with reg-
ularity. And, critically, that initial anxi- ety from the top about whether attor- neys would continue to maintain excel- lence for their clients seems to have sub- sided, because we all have proven that we can do great legal work wherever we are. Instead of “business as usual,” we now hear, “Let us know what you need to conduct business as usual,” and those extra words are the oxygen we have needed to get through this hard time.
Our collective adaptability has prompted countless articles opining on the extent to which working remotely will continue once quarantining is over. No doubt, we all miss our dedicated work spaces and personal interactions with colleagues. But I am optimis- tic that many of the changes we have implemented will “stick” nonetheless. I suspect that in Delaware, where corpo- rate clients are often headquartered in other states and co-counsel are based
Despite lingering views about “face time” held
by some senior members of the Bar, I’ve managed to do work that I love and stay a constant presence for
my two toddlers, thanks, in no small part, to my firm’s early adoption of remote technology.
in other cities, use of technology that minimizes the need for travel — such as depositions and court proceedings by Zoom or WebEx — will continue in the interest of efficiency, rather than necessity. If so, even that small change may democratize the type of work that parents of young children previously avoided, or took on with unnecessary guilt. Amidst all the challenges pre- sented by this pandemic, I am happy to find that small silver lining.
1For those who haven’t personally faced the challenge of working from home with small children, I recommend Susan Dunlap’s short but poignant article, Let’s Not Lose Ground During COVID-19 In The Fight For Gender Equality In Law Firms, published on Above the Law and available at https:// abovethelaw.com/2020/05/lets-not-lose- ground-during-covid-19-in-the-fight-for- gender-equality-in-law-firms.
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