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Within weeks of the shutdowns last March, those of us who follow legal tech trends were cautiously watching as attorneys who were displaced from their brick-and-mortar offices began to use cloud-based software out of necessity. Seemingly overnight, lawyers were intensely focused on learning as much as they could about the remote working tools that would help them get work done in the short term, at least until things “returned to normal.” Notably, at the time, it was expected that the stay-at-home orders would be in place for a few weeks, at most.

I described this evolving situation in my Above the Law article from March 19 of last year:

(T)he focus in online lawyer discussion groups changed overnight, with lawyers sharing their concerns about whether their firms would survive the mandated closures. Others sought advice on the remote working tools that would be necessary to set up a remote law firm, such as video conferencing platforms, VOIP phone systems, and law practice management software. Not surprisingly, the same phenomenon was occurring offline as well.

Now, nearly a year after I wrote that column, we’re nowhere close to any semblance of what we once defined as “normal,” and there’s no immediate end to the pandemic in sight. A lot has changed in the past year, and the continued unpredictability caused by the pandemic has resulted in a newfound mindset about technology that no one could have predicted prior the the pandemic. Lawyers are now embracing some forms of technology and relying on it to stabilize — and monetize — their law firms for the long haul.

But don’t take my word for it. After all, my literal job title is “Legal Technology Evangelist” so perhaps I’ve got too much skin in the game to make such a sweeping conclusion. Instead, let’s take a look at some of the statistics and conclusions from Thomson Reuters’ 2021 Report on the State of the Legal Market. This is an annual report, issued by the Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession at Georgetown University Law Center and the Thomson Reuters Institute, that reviews and analyzes the data and legal market trends of the prior year in order to provide predictions and insight on what to expect in the future.

A Pivotal Moment For The Legal Industry

This year’s Report opened with an apt analogy that offers a really interesting lens through which to view the impact of the pandemic on legal tech adoption. The authors explained that the pressures of the pandemic had the effect of reducing the legal profession’s historical resistance to fundamental change, thus ushering in a period of accelerated technology adoption that will ultimately lead to an overall redesign in the way that legal services are delivered. In other words, the pandemic was a “tipping point” for our profession, as defined by Malcolm Gladwell in his book “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference“:

Gladwell notes that the process of change begins with “clear examples of contagious behavior” — i.e., with a build-up of ideas and activities that appear to be moving in a particular direction. Once the build-up reaches a certain level, the acceleration of these behaviors can be influenced by little changes that have big effects. And, at that point, change can happen very fast. “The name given to that one dramatic moment in an epidemic when everything can change all at once is the Tipping Point…”

I believe that anecdotal evidence, combined with the results of this survey and other recent surveys, clearly indicate that our profession has indeed reached a tipping point and that many aspects of the practice of law, ranging from how and where work gets done and the footprint of law firms, will look very different on the other side of the pandemic.

Remote Work Can Work

The most obvious effect of the pandemic, and one that is sure to be long lasting, is the increased acceptance of working remotely. Before the pandemic, remote working was looked upon with suspicion, and even derision. Most lawyers didn’t believe that work could be accomplished effectively from home, and the value of face time was of paramount importance.

It’s strange, but not surprising, how that perception changed once there was no other way to get work done. This newfound acceptance of working from home was all the more amplified by the fact that everyone was working remotely and thus on level footing when it came to typical work-from-home interferences, like barking dogs or screaming children.

In other words, as explained in the Report, attitudes have changed and the work-from-home phenomenon is here to stay, in one form or another:

Most firms now acknowledge that remote working — though clearly different from in-person operations — can work. Indeed, the disruptions resulting from work-at-home arrangements were less serious than most firms expected. Interestingly, Acritas reports that the proportion of U.S. lawyers who now want to work remotely at least one day a week has doubled from the pre-pandemic period. While 37 percent of lawyers expressed an interest in remote work prior to the pandemic, 76 percent now favor the remote work option.

Newfound Acceptance And Appreciation Of Tech

For than a decade, I’ve been yelling from the rooftops (and writing into the ether) about the need for lawyers to both understand and use technology in their day-to-day practices. Some lawyers listened — many didn’t — and it was slow going for most of that time, although the rate of tech adoption and acceptance began to increase a bit starting in 2015 or so.

Even so, it was far too slow for my taste, and I often struggled to figure out how to get through to lawyers, both locally and nationally, and encourage them to appreciate and take advantage of the many benefits of technology. Little did I know that all it would take was a global pandemic.

After the pandemic struck, during a meeting  of the technology committee that I chaired at our local bar association, one of the members commented on the unexpected and rapid adoption of technologies like Zoom and efiling tools, and jokingly accused me of unleashing the pandemic on the world, with the sole purpose of getting lawyers to use technology.

While I wish it hadn’t taken a catastrophic event like a pandemic for this to happen, I can’t deny the end effect that COVID-19 has had on the legal profession’s willingness to adapt. Not surprisingly, the authors of the Report likewise acknowledged this phenomenon:

Partners in most firms probably now have a broader acceptance of the role of technology in the effective delivery of legal services than before the pandemic began. Indeed, 84 percent of partners surveyed by Acritas expected their firms to increase investments in technology. … This is not to say that resistance to future change will disappear, but the experience of adapting to the radically changed market conditions in 2020 may well create more openness to experimentation in other forms of service delivery.

Rethinking Work And Work Spaces

Last, but not least, work spaces. Real estate has always been one of the top overhead expenses for law firms. Costly, impressive offices were deemed a necessary part of doing business and attracting clients. The pandemic completely flipped that narrative on its head. Law firm leaders realized that working from home worked (see above), there was still profit to be had regardless of where the work was performed, and expensive office space and “face-time” requirements were simply a waste of resources.

As explained in the Report, that realization will undoubtedly result in a very different concept of “office space” for law firms once social distancing requirements are a thing of the past:

Almost all firms have significantly reduced costs by making fundamental changes in their operations. These include:

• Adapting to more efficient use of office and administrative space,
• Rethinking changes in staffing and work patterns,
• Altering levels of secretarial support,
• Reducing expectations for in-person meetings,
• Increasing the efficiency of digital connections, and
• Reducing business travel.

And many of these changes are likely to remain even after the pandemic ends.

Have We Reached The Tipping Point?

I believe that all signs point to “yes.” A tipping point has indeed been reached. Lawyers aren’t going to suddenly incorporate all forms of technology into their practices. But mindsets — even of diehard curmudgeons — have been altered and the rate of technology adoption has increased tenfold. The vast majority of lawyers are no longer scared of the idea of “technology” and are even beginning to appreciate the convenience and flexibility that cloud-based tools offer them.

The authors of the Report aren’t in complete agreement with me on this, but are definitely cautiously optimistic that we’re on the precipice of the elusive “tipping point”:

It remains to be seen whether the cataclysmic events related to the COVID-19 pandemic will indeed prove to be a tipping point for the legal industry, the time when the redesign of the legal service delivery model (both for law firms and others) firmly takes hold. It seems fairly clear, however, that — whether it is a tipping point or not — the experiences of 2020 and 2021 will accelerate important changes in the way law firms operate and relate to their clients, lawyers, and staffs moving forward. Firms that take these changes seriously and respond to them proactively will undoubtedly emerge as the market leaders in the “new” post-pandemic normal.

So what do you think? Have we reached a tipping point? And if so, what will the practice of law look like on the other side of the pandemic?

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Nicole Black is a Rochester, New York attorney and Director of Business and Community Relations at MyCase, web-based law practice management software. She’s been blogging since 2005, has written a weekly column for the Daily Record since 2007, is the author of Cloud Computing for Lawyers, co-authors Social Media for Lawyers: the Next Frontier, and co-authors Criminal Law in New York. She’s easily distracted by the potential of bright and shiny tech gadgets, along with good food and wine. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikiblack and she can be reached at niki.black@mycase.com.

It was truly a sense of relief by everyone who watched it, that they were not lawyer cats.

— 394th District Judge Roy Ferguson of Texas, commenting on attorney Rod Ponton’s Zoom fail that went viral outside of the legal profession, bringing a bit of joy to the rest of the world. Ponton had a cat filter on during his Zoom court session, and was unable to remove it at the start of the hearing, saying the now famous line, “I’m here live. I’m not a cat.”

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Gary Gensler is not yet Securities and Exchange Commission chairman. He’s not even, in these busy days on the Senate floor, in any danger of receiving a hearing on his appointment as such any time soon.

You make the best case you can for your client. Even if that case involves standing up with a straight face and pretending that the former president is actually an employee at his own club and is thus allowed to live on the premises.

“He’s now president of the Mar-a-Lago Club,” attorney John Marion told the Palm Beach town council at a Tuesday Zoom meeting. “You all would remember he put everything in a trust while he was president of the United States. But he’s now president of the club.”

As reported by the Washington Post, the former president signed an agreement in 1993 when he sought approval to open the private golf club that stipulated he would not live on the premises and which restricted guests to three non-consecutive seven-day stays per year. But now that he’s persona non grata in New York and all the appeals of his November 3 eviction from D.C. were rejected, Trump is looking to make his home at the club.

Hence the claim that the former president is a “bona fide employee” entitled to live at the club. Like a groundskeeper housed in a shack next to the golf course, but in a palatial villa and with his own table in the dining room.

“This guy as he wanders the property is like the mayor of the town of Mar-a-Lago if you will,” Marion told the town council, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “He is always present. He’s ever present. He loves it there, and he loves the people that he sees there. He enjoys it. It is his home.”

“He oversees the property,” Marion, added. “He evaluates the performance of the employees. He’s constantly doing that. He suggests improvements of the operation of the club. He does that constantly. You can ask the members.”

And if the members weren’t convinced that Trump was dutifully inspecting the golf course on sunny mornings — all 18 holes, so dedicated! — and the dining room every night, Marion helpfully included a memo reminding the council that his client routinely spent more than 21 nights a year in the “Owner’s Suite” before his presidency, and the town never objected.

“It has always been the case, before and after the execution of the Agreement in 1993, that President Trump has resided in the Owner’s Suite when at MAL, a use which has been far in excess of three visits per year and has never been challenged,” the lawyer wrote. The fact that this use now “threatens to make Mar-a-Lago into a permanent beacon for his more rabid, lawless supporters,” as Philip Johnston, attorney for Preserve Palm Beach, told the council, is of no moment if the town slept on its rights for 25 years.

(Laches again! What are the odds?)

Marion also hinted that if the council ruled against his client, they might live to regret it, finding traffic disrupted by daily trips between home and golf course for the president and his entourage.

And indeed the former president looks likely to get his way again.

“It seems there is nothing … that would prohibit him from living in the owner’s suite,” Palm Beach Town Council President Margaret Zeidman said Tuesday.

So mazel tov to Mr. Trump on finally getting some honest work.

Trump is free to live at Mar-a-Lago, despite neighbors who want him evicted, Palm Beach council president says [Sun Sentinel]
Trump Clings to the Presidency—of Mar-a-Lago [Daily Beast]
As Trump’s impeachment trial kicked off, Palm Beach argued about whether to evict him from Mar-a-Lago [WaPo]

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Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.;

Harmful gender stereotypes embedded in social and cultural norms, which suggest that women must always submit to men or that a man who beats his wife does so because he loves her, have fueled the rise in violence against women and girls in Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. As one activist in Mozambique said: “Girls are taught that husbands only beat their wives when they love them.”

Amnesty International also found in its briefing, “Treated like furniture: Gender-based violence and COVID-19 response in Southern Africa”, that women and girls who dare to report violence and abuse risk social rejection for failing to conform to gender roles — and when they do speak out, their complaints are not taken seriously by authorities.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted an escalation in gender-based violence against women and girls in Southern Africa. It has also magnified existing structural problems such as poverty, inequality, crime, high unemployment and systematic criminal justice failures,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa.

“Lockdown measures meant that women could not escape abusive partners or leave their homes to seek protection. Across Southern Africa, women who suffered gender-based violence struggled to report abuse because both women and organizations working to provide protection and support to women were not seen as an “essential service”, and so faced severe restrictions of movement, resulting in them abandoning filing cases.”

Of the five countries where gender-based violence was documented in this briefing, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe stand out as countries where support services to women and girls subjected to violence and abuse were not taken into consideration in the design of the measures to control the spread of COVID-19.

Rape, beatings and killings during lockdown

Within weeks of countries being on lockdown, violence against women increased sharply across the region. In the first week of the lockdown, the South African Police Service (SAPS) reported receiving 2,300 calls for help related to gender-based violence. By mid-June 2020, 21 women and children had been killed by intimate partners in the country.

One emblematic case was the brutal murder of 28-year-old Tshegofatso Pule, who went missing on 4 June and was found four days later, stabbed and hanging from a tree in Johannesburg while eight months pregnant.

In Mozambique, civil society organizations received unusually high numbers of domestic violence cases after the start of the state of emergency in March 2020. In one case, a man killed his wife and then himself on 6 June in Matola district in Maputo province.

Horrifying details also emerged of the robbery, rape and murder of a Maputo Central Hospital employee on 31 May 2020. She was on her way home, late at night because of the scarcity of public transport during the state of emergency restrictions.

In Zimbabwe, an organization that offers protection for women survivors of domestic violence, had documented 764 cases of gender-based violence in the first 11 days of the national lockdown. By 13 June 2020, the number was 2,768.

One Zimbabwean woman, Maria* (not her real name), was violently thrown out of her home by her husband after he moved his mistress in during the lockdown.

In Madagascar, the rise in poverty due to lockdown was a major factor for the increase in gender-based violence during the lockdown period, with women and girls becoming poorer, more economically dependent on abusive partners and therefore more exposed to abuse.

Zambia was the only country that recorded a slight decrease in gender-based violence during the national lockdown compared to the same period in 2019, according to official police statistics. The country recorded a 10% decrease in the first quarter of 2020, which may reflect the fact that women were unable to call for help rather than a decline in gender-based violence cases. However, one NGO, Young Women’s Christian Association, recorded an increase in sexual violence cases during the first quarter of 2020.

Barriers to justice

 

The briefing identified several barriers to justice for victims and survivors of gender-based violence across Southern Africa. These include a lack of trust in the criminal justice system and secondary trauma which victims and survivors often suffer at the hands of authorities, including the police, and health services when they attempt to report cases.

These barriers came into sharper focus during the COVID-19 pandemic. In South Africa for example, there has been public outrage about the institutional failures to administer justice for women and girls who are victims and survivors of gender-based violence, even though the country’s Domestic Violence Act of 1998 explicitly states that victims may lay criminal complaints against offenders.

One rape survivor, Natasha* (not her real name) said violence against women had increased because “police don’t take gender-based violence victims seriously enough when they file cases”.

South Africa’s Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Ronald Lamola, admitted on radio in June 2020 that there were weaknesses in the system that frequently failed victims of gender-based violence.

In Mozambique, when a gender-based violence complaint is filed, police are required to open an investigation. However, like in South Africa, many victims are reluctant to come forward because of pressure from society to put up with domestic violence, financial dependence on the perpetrator, and a lack of confidence in the criminal justice system.

According to civil society organisations, in some instances, police officers were accused of dismissing gender-based violence complaints because they saw them as family matters and not crimes. The stigma around sexual violence was also cited as a contributing factor to underreporting.

“It is shocking that for many in Southern Africa, the most dangerous place to be a woman or a girl during the COVID-19 pandemic is at home. This is simply inexcusable. The leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) must ensure that prevention and protection of women from gender-based and domestic violence is an integral part of national responses to pandemics and other emergencies,” Deprose Muchena said.

“States must ensure that women and girls continue to have access to police protection and justice as well as to shelters and other support services to escape the blight of gender-based violence.”

Post published in: Featured

The International Day of Women and Girls in Science is commemorated
every year on 11 February and it aims to underline the critical role
played by women and girls in scientific advancements across the globe.
It is also an opportunity for nations to reinforce their commitment to
address the gender disparities in science-related industries. The
theme for 2021 is “Women Scientists at the forefront of the fight
against COVID-19.” The theme points to the indispensable role played
by women in different stages of the fight against COVID-19 from
advancing knowledge, developing techniques for testing and developing
a vaccine.

This year’s edition of International Day of Women and Girls in Science
is its 6th iteration and it aims to highlight the need for equality in
science to ensure the attainment of internationally agreed development
goals such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Social
biases and gender stereotypes are global barriers to the inclusion of
women in science-related fields such as mathematics, information
communication and technology (ICT), engineering, construction and
natural science. The exclusion of women and girls in these industries
can be traced back to the low percentage of women who pick
science-related subjects in higher education. Removing the barriers
that prevent women and girls from picking science-related subjects and
entering Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
(STEM)-related fields is the key to greater participation of women and
girls in science.

In Zimbabwe, cultural norms, poverty, lack of adequate resources in
the education sector (human and technical) hinder the pursuit of
careers in science by women and girls. Sadly, women and girls are
expected to be mothers and wives primarily in many communities across
the country. Therefore, many women and girls do not get an opportunity
to pursue a higher education in STEM fields, let alone a career in
science. Of the women and girls that have the opportunity to go to
school, many are unlawfully prevented from continuing with their
education as they fail to pay fees. The working conditions of
educators are also deplorable.

ZLHR has intervened in numerous cases where school authorities
prevented women and girls from continuing with their education by
withholding their academic results, in an effort to induce them to pay
outstanding fees. School authorities must stop this unlawful practice
in order for girls and women to continue their education and pursue
their dreams in the science field. This practice of withholding
results by school authorities contravenes the right to education that
is guaranteed by section 27 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe. Lawyers
have also offered support to teachers who have embarked on collective
job actions to express their disgruntlement over poor working
conditions.

The increased participation of women in STEM-related fields is
necessarily dependent on the provision of quality primary, secondary
and tertiary education. This provision is guaranteed in section 75 of
the Constitution, which states that every citizen and permanent
resident has a right a basic state-funded education.

On this International Day of Women and Girls in Science, government is
reminded of its obligation under section 27(2) of the Constitution
which requires it to take measures to ensure that girls are afforded
equal  opportunities as boys to obtain education at all levels. These
proactive measures are required to resolve the gender
disproportionality existing in the science field. Government should
also ensure that schools are adequately equipped.
The Grade 7 examinations pass rate is a worrying sign that many
schools are not environments in which students can thrive. 88 schools
had a 0 percent pass rate while Matabeleland provinces were the most
affected. The government is therefore enjoined to investigate the
underlying reasons for the poor pass rates in the Grade 7 examinations
and formulate comprehensive plans to rectify any inadequacies in the
primary school system. This will ensure that women and girls are
afforded an opportunity to obtain the quality primary education that
forms the basis for further studies in STEM-related subjects and
careers in science.

In line with this year’s theme for International Day of Women and
Girls in Science which looks at the critical role played by women in
the fight against COVID-19, ZLHR calls upon the state to stop the
prosecution and persecution of Harare West constituency legislator
Honourable Joana Mamombe, who has graduate and postgraduate
qualifications in biotechnology and molecular biology. Hon. Mamombe,
like other women, should be supported so that she can contribute to
research on COVID-19 vaccines for the continent.

On this International Day of Women and Girls in Science, ZLHR urges
government to:

o    Take steps to promote education as required by section 75 of the
Constitution in order for women and girls to get an opportunity to
advance their studies in science-related subjects;

o    Develop comprehensive plans to address the gender disproportionality
in science-related fields;

o    Ensure that school authorities do not undermine the ability of women
and girls to pursue further studies in STEM-related subjects by
withholding their academic results;

o    Investigate the causes of the poor pass rate in the recent Grade 7
examinations and formulate comprehensive plans to resolve the issue;

o    Promote higher and tertiary education for women and girls so that
they can pursue careers in STEM-related fields;

o    Stop persecution of women in science including but not limited to;
Honourable Mamombe, medical practitioners, teachers and students for
them to continue with their critical work in science and development;