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Recently added to the ever-growing list of “things that are the lawyer’s fault”: the coronavirus. At least as reported by CNN regarding the spread within New York. What relevance his profession has to the public health crisis is beyond me.
In the modern news cycle, it can be hard sometimes to tell where facts end, and where fiction or false alarms begin. But the evolving story of the coronavirus is a compelling one that seems to be gaining momentum by the second. On Friday evening last week, our firm spoke about the Western District of Washington’s cancellation of jury trials and wondered if similar measures would affect any of the firm’s upcoming trials. By this week’s end, we had our answer by way of an adjournment.
Stories from Chinese expats of days and even weeks spent indoors seemed, to me, far away a week ago. Today — with news of the NBA suspending its season, MLB cancelling spring training, and the NCAA canceling March Madness altogether — there seems to be a real possibility that our work norms will change in response to the pandemic in the coming weeks and months. With this acknowledgement in mind, now would be as good a time as any to remember what we can do personally, and professionally, to weather the storm.
What We Can Do Personally
I do not hold myself out to be an expert in public health. As such, I’m not in a position to be giving advice about how we should respond to a pandemic. Professor Kenji Shibuya, Director of the Institute for Population Health at King’s College in London, on the other hand, is exactly the kind of expert whose advice we should be feverishly seeking and following as decrees from a higher being. Shibuya, along with Yoshiro Hayashi, entrusted designer Takashi Tokuma to communicate straightforward, accurate guidelines to prevent the further spread of the virus.
Such measures are outlined in a disarming bilingual infographic and include: sleep well, wash your hands, don’t touch your face, exercise, eat well, cover your nose and mouth, use your nondominant hand, and stay home when you’re sick. So basically, the appropriate response to avoid the further spread of the coronavirus is to live your best life. Notably missing from these measures is avoid large public gatherings, but perhaps that goes without being said?
What We Can Do Professionally
Our firm employs a chief of staff who has stayed on top of coronavirus developments over the past few weeks, and so we had some warning a week or two ago that our modus operandi could be disrupted in the near future. Anticipating the worst, every employee has verified that they are able to remotely log in to their workspaces, so that in the event of a mandatory lockdown, our work will not simply grind to a halt.
Connectivity is a double-edged sword to the modern professional. On the one hand, it can create the expectation of constant contact and make it hard to “unplug” from work. On the other hand, in times of crisis, it’s a huge convenience to be able to remotely work and access all the necessary information from anywhere at any time.
Uncertain times are ahead for us all. We simply do not know to what extent the coronavirus will affect public health, as well as the economy. We will have to do a certain amount of “wait and see.” That said, whatever measures you decide to take, be sure to communicate them to your clients.
Timothy M. Lupinek is an attorney at Balestriere Fariello who represents companies and individuals in state, appellate, and administrative courts of Maryland. He focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation with thousands of hours of civil, criminal, and regulatory trial experience. You can reach Timothy at timothy.m.lupinek @balestrierefariello.com.