Hi friends, it’s Billie Tarascio from Modern Law Practice. I have spent the morning thinking. I’m sure you are all thinking too. I just wanted to share some of those thoughts because I think right now we know that we’re in a moment … we’re living history right now. And when I think back, I’m 39, and so I’ve lived through several crises, and they were never this bad.
Let me explain what I mean by that. We had 9/11. It changed our whole world. It changed our economy. It changed our world. Had huge ramifications. Then there was the 2008 housing crisis. It changed our world. It sent us into a big recession. Neither of those looked like this. Neither of those looked like no food on the shelves of the store. This is different because we’re afraid of one another. We’re afraid of human contact. In the past, humans have always been able to serve each other and lift each other up and work together in crisis. This crisis has us separating from one another. We have to really think about how can we use our virtual abilities to support one another.
I’m worried about … most people at Modern Law are working from home because that’s the safest thing for people to do. But I’m worried, not about our ability to work from home, we can all work from home. We have the technology. We know how to work from home. I’m worried about how it’s going to affect our culture, how it’s going to affect our ability to support one another, how it’s going to affect the mental health of my law firm because mental health is such a huge priority for Modern Law. We really invest in supporting each other.
How are we going to do that when what we’re hearing is that people are going to die, and clients are going to die, and the economy’s going to crash. That’s what we’re hearing from this country’s leadership. I think they mean it. I don’t think it’s a scare tactic. I don’t think it’s a cover up or a fraud or a conspiracy. I think that that’s a very real possibility. Hopefully that doesn’t happen, but it’s a very real possibility. What are we going to do to prepare for it? We really need to be looking at our expenses because I don’t want to lay people off. I don’t want my law firm to ever be in a position where it can’t continue to support the many people who depend on it for their economic livelihood.
How can we save money? How can we cut costs that are not cutting our employee costs? At the same time, how do we make sure that we have the right employees and we’re holding them accountable? There needs to be accountability in place so that you know which employees are supporting your law firm’s growth and vision and which employees are freeloading because there’s no more freeloading.
This is the time for the microscope to come out and for you to be making great decisions to protect those employees who are loyal and those clients that you have. Clients are going to be harder to come by. How can you be a resource for lawyers? How can you provide coverage to lawyers who may not be able to work remotely, who may not have the infrastructure that you do? How can you become a resource for them? How can you become a resource for your community?
I think delivery drivers are going to come up. If people are working from home, do I need a runner that’s going to be able to go from my employee’s houses picking things up? These are the things we need to be thinking about. Every single day this is going to evolve, and I will share with you the thoughts that we’ve got. We’ve already started thinking about how do we make our intake workshop in April remote? How do we spread it out? How do we make it more useful for the current reality and the reality that’s evolving? How do we connect and stay connected and share and become a resource for one another?
That’s what we’re trying to do at Modern Law Practice. This is what we’re trying to do at Modern Law. We’re in a period of time that’s fraught with massive risk and massive opportunity. By thinking ahead, we can make sure that we end up on the right side of this crisis by lifting each other up, by providing value, by being the best attorneys and leaders that we can possibly be. Hang in there, stay safe, stay healthy. We’ll talk soon.
