Following the COVID 19 pandemic, you may notice some significant changes to how lawyers practice law.
1. Greater Efficiency
For one thing, we have seen that motions court can be handled remotely over the phone in state court, with no issues, saving your attorney travel time to the courthouse (and your time in terms of hourly fees if you pay your lawyer hourly). Motions court has been conducted this way in federal court for years, without incident. In other words, civil litigation can be conducted largely via telephone.
Depositions can present a problem, as a lawyer often needs get a “feel” for the witness, in person, and a jury needs to see witnesses live, ideally, but many other aspects of lawyer can be done remotely via telephone, such as presenting simple motions or filing court papers .
You may have also noticed that your lawyer works from home more. Prior to the pandemic, our law firm shifted to work-from-home model, to save our time and money (thus the client’s time and money). We also avoid the expense of parking and other services in the central business district (downtown).
Other firms, however, had been slow to make the adjustment. As such, they were hit hard by covid from a business model standpoint. The Bar Associations in PA were also slow to evaluate the appropriate standards to employ for working at home, to comply with the ethical rules for lawyers.
2. Clarity from the Bar Associations
A lawyer is not permitted to say he or she “practices” in an area where the lawyer has little or no physical presence. Otherwise, all lawyers could say they practice everywhere and the potential clients would not know who to trust as having a familiarity with local rules from actual experience. This typically comes into play when a lawyer lives in one state but claims to practice in the surrounding states without having offices in such areas. This is governed by Rule Pa.R.P.C. 5.5.
The Pennsylvania Bar Association in collaboration with the Philadelphia Bar Association issued a joint formal opinion on this matter, which is located here.
Lawyers licensed in Pennsylvania may ethically engage in the remote practice of law for clients with Pennsylvania matters while being physically present in a jurisdiction in which they are not admitted unless a statute, rule, case law, or opinion of that jurisdiction prohibits the conduct. Although the lawyers may not hold themselves out as being licensed to practice in the local jurisdiction and may not advertise or otherwise hold themselves out as having an office in the local jurisdiction. Plus he may not provide or offer to provide legal services in the local jurisdiction, the fact that they are physically located there does not bar them from working remotely for the same clients.
3. Client Confidentiality Issues
Lawyers working from home creates other issues, in terms of client confidentiality of information when family members of the lawyers comes in contact with a hard file or hears the lawyers on the phone talking about a case, while sharing a home with family. That said, we expect the various bar associations to weigh in on these issues in the months and years to come. The American Bar Association has weighed in on some of these issues, but more attention will be coming.
In the interim, our law firm — which had converted to a work-from-home model prior to covid — had already addresses these topics, limiting the use of “hard files” at home, and ensuring that information will remain confidential. Rely on our Pittsburgh litigation lawyers to assist you.
