I think, in this remote era, there’s going to be a lot of conversation about how much can we really work from home after the pandemic, and how much do we need to be in person. So there’s going to be pressure on reducing real estate holdings and new office space and things. I hope we don’t go too far. That’s one risk I foresee because [legal] work in a sense can be done from anywhere. Because what I do is what we’re doing now. I get on a Zoom call, and I talk to you, I write a memo at my desk, on my laptop. But I think something is lost if you completely lose the element of the physical coming together. So I do see a pressure there, of too much focus on remote work, and that puts a lot of stress on people’s time, because it’s much harder to unplug. And I think it puts a lot of dependency on technology. You know, laptops always got to be up, the programs you use always have to be working really well. And as we know, like, Zoom for business, or WebEx, or other things don’t always work great. Whereas if we’re in person, I can always just walk to your office and have a conversation. I think [another] risk is overly siloing people, especially for work from home, it’s just too easy to just work with people you always work with, because you don’t see other people, right? It’s out of sight, out of mind. And you don’t think to yourself, even though we have email, and I could email anyone, there’s just too much going on in your [own] silo [and] [in] your own home. I think gets people thinking let me just rely on the people I already work with. So I figured a way of actually discourages outreach and connectivity and synergy with other employees. Even though, you could theoretically talk to anyone anywhere in the world via zoom and via email, so I think it’s a careful balance of those two.

[For other excerpts from Sarah Sowell’s interview with Daniel Cohen, see her article Understanding the legal field.]

Sarah Sowell, Longitude fellow, Rice University:

In this interview, something I think that really stood out to me is how even in a profession like law, there may be a lot of solitary work. Teamwork, specifically, the organic teamwork that can mostly come by being near people is really powerful and important to a business. Living apart and doing work apart from each other means a lot of changes to what we view as a necessary part of the workplace. And questions like “do we need a physical place to work” and “do we need in person teams” have come up regarding what to do post COVID. This clip makes a really powerful case for reasons to go back to being in person together. The friendships and acquaintances, team power and brain work that are gained by being together are a real asset to a business that can’t be quantified but should be preserved.