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In late February, the coronavirus began showing up on many U.S. law firms’ radar for the first time, as Paul Weiss began restricting employees’ travel and Orrick, Latham and others postponed partner retreats and meetings. As the global scale of the pandemic became clear, more and more firms began taking their first steps to respond, including Baker McKenzie becoming the first major firm in London to temporarily close.

In the first days of March, a lawyer at a New York trusts and estates firm became severely ill after being diagnosed with the coronavirus—one of the first cases on the East Coast. Quinn Emanuel announced on March 8 the first known positive test of a Big Law partner, Steven Edwards, who died April 8.

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The First Response

Lawyers Diagnosed

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It didn’t take long for law firms to create coronavirus task forces designed to immediately assist clients with their related needs. By March 4, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, Alston & Bird, King & Spalding, Baker & Hostetler and Stroock & Stroock & Lavan had all created task forces, and many other firms had issued client advisories. By the following week, the potential for a spike in demand in some practices was becoming clear.

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Business Opportunities

Closing Up Shop

It started slowly, with Quinn Emanuel closing its New York office in the second week of March and firms weighing their options for remote work, followed by Faegre Drinker shutting down 22 offices after potential coronavirus exposure, but the rest of the industry quickly followed suit. By the end of that week, firms were rushing to enact remote work and looking to virtual firms for lessons, and by the end of the following week nearly everyone seemed to be working from home, as mandated closures across the country had firms scrambling.

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The Pro Bono Response

By mid-March, Big Law recognized the need for an overwhelming pro bono response to assist individuals, organizations and small businesses. Paul Weiss kicked into high gear to marshal its resources. Firms including Hogan Lovells began doing what they could to get N95 masks and other personal protective equipment to health care providers. By early April, a pro bono boom of sorts was underway.

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David Lat’s Journey

On March 17, recruiter and former Above the Law editor David Lat announced he had tested positive for COVID-19, and for two weeks the industry followed along with his journey. After a brush with death that included time on a ventilator in the intensive care unit, he left the hospital with a message for the profession and the country: “Take heart. Be strong.”

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Recession Planning

Law firms have been feeling recession jitters for a long time, but in late February the combination of the coronavirus and the November election brought the issue to the fore. Three weeks later, once firms were feeling the effects of the pandemic, some had begun to seek credit and plan for an M&A downturn. And a week later, some firms began to enter survival mode.

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Layoffs, Cutbacks and More

On March 26, Hugh Simons made the case for deferring partner payments, and it took just five days before news of such decisions had hit at Cadwalader. On March 30, Womble Bond Dickinson made the move to cut pay and lay off and furlough some employees. April 1 brought a warning that major firms were looking at imminent cuts, and within a week the list was long with firms that had made decisions on the issue. Meanwhile, some firms declared that to retain a sense of certainty, they would commit to not making layoffs or pay cuts.

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Client Concerns

As clients began turning to their firms in search of support through a challenging time, some in-house lawyers felt bombarded by a seemingly unending string of invitations to coronavirus webinars. And General Electric’s former general counsel wrote on March 31 that clients will have a long memory for the way their firms treat them during this crisis, offering some guiding principles for outside counsel to follow.

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On April 2, Hugh Simons wrote about how firms could cancel their summer associate programs, and it didn’t take long for many to begin changing their plans by shortening, canceling or otherwise shifting their usual summer plans.

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Summer, Delayed

Even in the early days of spring, firms began changing their plans for this year’s class of first-year associates. Orrick was the first to announce its move, delaying the normal fall 2020 start date until January 2021. Reed Smith and Greenberg Traurig made similar moves, as did Baker Botts and Squire Patton Boggs. The full picture on first-years still remains to be seen.

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First-Year Classes

As states across the country slowly reopened businesses beginning in late April, law firms were in no rush to fill their offices back up with lawyers and staff. In Texas, most firms continued to work remotely even once they were allowed to return to the office, but at least one Houston trial firm bucked the trend. Many firm leaders started to contemplate how their sudden comfortability with remote work would change their office needs in the future, and Legal Week editor Paul Hodkinson wrote about the changes the pandemic could create.

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To Open or Not to Open