When I worked as a Wall Street lawyer (I'm "rehabilitated" now, Chris says, since I don't practice any more), I took the subway in from Brooklyn. (I was an Associate, saving money to buy a co-op. Which I never bought; I quit the Rat Race to become a writer in Paris. But that's another story.)
On days when I rode the decrepit Lexington Avenue trains it was like something out of a Seinfeld episode: July, no AC, greasy air, windows open, deafening noise in tunnels, train breaks down, lights go out… incomprehensible voice fuzzblats on the intercom. Silence. A few wisecracks here and there. Lights go on, your nose is in the armpit of some stranger…. Oy!
Nobody worked from home. I worked for a great firm, but (this being Wall Street) everybody was expected to come in at some point on weekends. It would have been wonderful to have been able to telework from time to time…
Anyway, we talk here occasionally about the lawyers oh-so-gradually starting to work from home (nothing happens quickly in the law, except the combustion of money when you're in litigation), and now it seems that the recession is helping more attorneys take a fresh look at things. The aged brick-and-mortar model is expensive, of course (for clients, too, who are paying the rent), and "going virtual" is so much cheaper.
We don't expect a mass migration of lawyers to home offices anytime soon, recession or no, but for hope, see the recent Washington Post piece, "Recession Sends Lawyers Home."
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