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The Shift: Restructured Roles Are Coming for Post-Pandemic Offices
With the world coming up on a year under the thrall of COVID-19, a number of attorneys are feeling something they never would have believed 12 months ago: an earnest desire to return to the office. But once they get there, it’s likely not going to be the same office they’re used to. And yes, that could manifest itself through shrinking real estate square footage, or more flexible working space. But, the biggest change may have nothing to do with the physical environment—and all to do with the people not in it.
With lawyers used to working from home, they’ve begun to take on more administrative tasks by necessity, tracking their own time and billing, research and more in a remote environment. And perhaps surprisingly, they’re finding it’s not too much of a burden. Stroock & Stroock & Lavan chief information officer Neeraj Rajpal told Law.com of the increased responsibility, “I don’t see that as an administrative burden. I think the lawyers and partners have become more technologically savvy, they understand the tools and people are available for them.”
But if many attorneys are handling administrative tasks themselves, where does that leave support staff? It’s a good question, and one whose likely answer involves some form of change. Rajpal said at Stroock, “With COVID-19 we’re looking at the staffing model and when people return to the office what we will need and how much we need.” HBR Consulting client development vice president Christopher Ryan said they’re not the only firm: “[It] forces them to rethink how these legal admin structures should work and look like. If they do that they need to make sure there’s some training and right skills in place and the right roles and titles [in place]. There’s a holistic view you need to look at with legal admin … of what do they need in this environment going forward.” The Conversation
Change doesn’t necessarily mean widespread legal support layoffs. It just means that in the new paradigm, there will be more of an emphasis on proving positive value to the firm or legal department. Clare Hart, CEO of outsourcing provider Williams Lea’s business unit, told Law.com that legal secretaries’ “human touch” can help build relationships with clients and other executive assistants that can be useful for partners and the firm, which can’t be easily replaced. “Those assistants will use automation and technology to improve productivity, but they’re not going to go away because of that personal relationship.” It’s the legal secretaries that solely provide data entry, conference room booking and other easily replicable administrative tasks that are ripe for outsourcing to providers that utilize technology, Hart added.
This means a mass shift in how to orient the job tasks of support staff could be coming. Roles in law firms will be created, expanded, combined and eliminated. Bea Seravello of Baretz & Brunelle’s NewLaw practice has spent the past year analyzing the shifting dynamics of large law firms, and predicted for 2021, “Self-reliance will eradicate the more bespoke requirements previously fulfilled by support staff leading us to ‘zoom’ in on more essential requirements. Be on the lookout for a reshaping of the legal assistant role, an expansion of the HR function and more mainstreaming of data scientists.”
But this adjustment isn’t likely to be a wholesale, across-firm change, HBR Consulting’s Ryan added. When change occurs, it needs to take into account the varying needs of different practice areas. “It’s hard to find a one-size-fits-all model for these different practice groups because IP and patent prosecution [is different from] M&A practice or the real estate practice,” Ryan explained. “They may need more legal admin support then, whereas the transactional or M&A practices may not need as much, but they may need more high-end skill sets potentially.”
The Significance
Many firms are already starting to plan out what their staffing future looks like—Cushman & Wakefield executive managing director Sherry Cushman told Law.com that her discussions with law firm leaders have suggested the industry was moving toward the elimination of 15% to 30% of staff positions. As law firms (and even corporate legal departments) make these personnel decisions, they would be wise to do so in place with specific plans informed by the new era of remote work: What administrative tasks do we reasonably expect attorneys to handle on their own? Is support staff actually contributing to ROI? Are needs different in different practice areas or functions?
And perhaps most crucially, those plans must include the question of geography: Do we actually care whether our support staff is onsite at all? Cushman also noted the company’s survey work since the start of the pandemic has revealed that somewhere between 50% to 80% of jobs, staff, partners and associates all want to continue some degree of remote work once the threat of the coronavirus has faded. That tracks with TRU Staffing Partners’ own research, which found that its hiring placements rose from 4% remote in 2014, to 30% in 2019, to 72% in 2020. This will have an effect not only on total staffing headcount, but also salaries. TRU’s Jared Coseglia noted, “Talent in lower-cost-of-living areas with equal or comparable skills to peers in big cities may find themselves having an advantage in 2021 because they require lower base compensation.”
The Information
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For more information on the Legalweek(year) virtual experience, visit legalweekshow.com or follow @Legalweekshow and engage with #Legalweek21 and #Legalweekyear for updates. The Forecast
2021 will continue to see its fair share of staff restructuring; the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t done yet, after all. But don’t expect those changes to finish even when workers begin coming back into the office en masse. Working out the kinks of how to integrate admin task-proficient attorneys, remote workers, and ROI-generating support staff isn’t a simple plug-and-play proposition. This restructuring task is something that firms will be tackling into 2022 and beyond as they look to begin working from the office again with a clean slate, followed by a process of experimentation and iteration.
Zach Warren is the editor-in-chief of Legaltech News. Based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Zach has been with LTN since 2015. He can be reached at zwarren@alm.com.
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