Litigating From Home
I have worked at firms with New York offices for years. And when people think of lawyers, they often think of lawyers who go to a tall building building, walk past a secretary, and sit in their office near a shelf full of law books. But changes in the technology that litigators use have made it easier for lawyers to work from home.
Why should you keep reading this post about litigating from home?
You are commuting to your office and hoping to discover that this is a necessary undertaking.
You want to know what lawyering looks like if it doesn’t look like Suits.
You want to know about my lunch routines.
The Actual Work
The actual work of litigation can be done from home. It is basically being on the phone, exchanging emails, writing documents, filing documents, being on Zooms, and online research. All laptop and phone stuff.
Some litigators are in court a lot, but many commercial litigators hardly go because the nature of their cases are that they do not have a lot of court conferences or the ones they do have are virtual.
Working With Colleagues
To me, the major benefit of working in an office is that it is much easier to work with colleagues when you are all physically in the same place. You can knock on someone’s door and chat through an issue with them. Or you can be confident you have their full attention as you look them in the eye. You can go through printouts of documents together. And you can have a long meeting with a colleague without the eye strain of a long Zoom or the boredom of an interminable phone call.
Offices are more conducive work with legal support staff. Unless you’re inviting a secretary or paralegal to your home, the most natural place to have someone proofread your work, prepare a binder of exhibits, or get documents ready for mailing is an office.
With that said, many litigators who work from home work alone. This may allow the litigator to work free from distraction; at my old jobs, there were plenty of distractions - administrative meetings, people stopping by for social reasons, fire drills, etc. And it may be less expensive for the client. But it may also be slower than a team working together and it may lead to oversights or mistakes that a team member would have caught.
Focus
Many people choose to work in an office (and many employers insist on it) because many people focus better at an office than at home. At home, there may be distractions like chores or home entertainment or children that are less likely to interfere with work at the office.
I find myself marginally more focused at an office. But I think this focus is more than offset by the time spent commuting, the time spent settling in the morning or getting ready to leave, and the in-office distractions I cited in the previous section.
One downside, however, is that the focus I set at home is hard to break. People who work in an office may enjoy having a clear break at the end of the work day and focusing on their personal life after work. But when a litigator works in the same house they live in, the work day (and its agita) may never let up.
Meeting with Clients
Different types of litigators have different needs to meet with clients. I worked at one firm for a year and never once met with a client in the office. That was because many litigators represent clients who are based in another location or on matters where in-person discussions are less important than the terms of written agreements. And so, for personal injury lawyers, it may be necessary to have a conference room for client meetings.
Many of my clients are from outside of the New York area and many of the disputes I handle concern business disputes. And so I have less of a need for a conference room. When I do meet with clients in person, I can reserve a conference room at a co-working space. But often, phone calls and video meetings suffice
At the same time, there are other benefits to a nice office besides the utilitarian function of a place to see clients. Clients pay a lot of money for counsel and, seeing a fancy office, may assure a client that they are meeting with a smart, accomplished, respected attorney who is worth the cost. It may also assure them that the attorney is capable and therefore put them at ease that they are in good hands. Since I don’t meet clients in an office like that, they may miss out on that psychological benefit.
Lunch and Social Events
When I worked in an office, I almost always bought lunch at local lunch places. In midtown Manhattan, that would cost millions of dollars each week. Now, I make sandwiches, eat leftovers, or make other quick meals. Lately I have been enjoying Wegmans Kobe-style roast beef sandwiches and also ramen noodles with chili crisp, cashews, and two hard boiled eggs.
When I worked in Manhattan, I frequently attended events or saw friends in the city before returning home to Brooklyn. But now that I work from home, there is a powerful inertia that keeps me at home in comfortable clothes. To attend an event or see a friend requires me to get dressed and travel into the city, which may not sound like a great burden, but that poses some friction that may be worth it for a full day in the city but that may seem more burdensome compared to a brief event or one that, by itself, may seem missable.
Office Equipment
Another major benefit to working in an office is access to a good printer and scanner. I have an HP M129 printer and scanner at home, which does the job, but I do miss the faster machines that could handle bulk jobs at a previous job.
As time goes on, more and more law offices reduce the role of a law library with hard bound books. I have used books frequently in my work and there are some times where they are superior to online resources. But, for the most part, online research is sufficient and cost effective.