The corona virus has impacted us in so many ways. I never expected it to cause a paralysis in the legal community. I am a private attorney with a practice in family law. I specialize in family law as well as estate, wills and real estate. My firm attends to all family related legal needs because family matters. Since the New York state shutdown, I have attempted to continue servicing my clients as best I can with the courts being closed. When I go into my office or work on my computer from home, I feel like John Adams in the musical 1776 when he sings, “Is Anybody There?” As he sat in the loft above the Continental Congress, he was feeling frustrated and alone in his fight for independence.
That song has taken on new meaning for me during this pandemic. I am practicing the federal and state guidelines of social distancing and my staff is working from home. There is plenty of work to do and the virus may have halted new court filings but the cases and files I have still need to be worked on. As for new cases, the work needs to be prepared to be ready to file when the courts reopen. Of course, if there are any emergencies those also will be dealt with through Skyping and the court is receiving emergency applications. Now as of April 13th the court will be handling non- emergency cases already filed and on the calendar by phone and Skype conferences.
Most of my work consists of emails, speaking to clients by phone, drafting agreements, petitions, motions, contracts and agreements. This is work done outside of court. This pandemic has given us an opportunity to focus on our clients, speak to them, prepare settlements and do all of the work we cannot do when we are bombarded by court appearances and in office consultations and depositions. When an attorney has a busy court calendar, it is difficult to attend to our clients on a one to one basis or really spend time delving into a case. You now have the time to discuss issues with your adversary. I have set up mediations during this time via Zoom. Documents can be notarized electronically and if there is a need for a will, power of attorney or healthcare proxy to be done, it can be done as an essential service and now wills can be executed and witnessed electronically due to a new Executive order from Governor Cuomo which extends social distancing and the continuing closures of non- essential businesses until April 29th. We are in for over two more weeks of restrictions. Restriction does not mean we do nothing.
I did not think that the corona virus caused paralysis. If we have allowed inertia to overcome us and we cease living the virus will consume us and make us even sicker. It can make us sick physically, but it does not have to prevent us from living our lives and honoring our responsibilities to our colleagues, clients and society.
I urge everyone to take this opportunity to return to life as we knew it before that life is gone. Our clients, our practices and our staff deserve a chance to continue. As John Adams sang “Does anybody care, is anybody there?” We should answer with a resounding, “Yes!” John Adams pushed on and won our independence. He never let up. Let your clients and society at large know we care; and their legal needs can still be addressed pandemic or no pandemic. To allow the pandemic to forget who we are and what is expected of us may be worse than the virus itself.
