Costanzo Law Firm Covid-19 lockdown lessons learned
At the Costanzo Law Firm, we have been “Tech Forward” since the founding of the firm in 2010. From the beginning, we embraced the latest in cloud technologies. When the lock down began, it was a relatively simple process for us to work from home and stay productive. Laptops taken, a monitor or two borrowed and away we go.
Our technology
Our files, firm management software, and even our phone systems are on secured cloud-based platforms. Our systems are protected by the same technology that secures the systems used by the Department of Defense, the CIA and major banks. Our systems and tools, are HIPAA and CCPA compliant. This includes 256 bit encryption, multifactor authentication and biometric security. We require more than just a simple password to access our systems.
Staying efficient
Even though we have state of the art technology, as a law firm, it is important to be able to quickly communicate with other team members. Working remotely, you lose the ability to quickly ask questions, or the random hallway conversation that can help move an issue forward. We have embraced the techniques below, that many of the tech firms have embraced, to mitigate the effect of isolation.
While these techniques do not fully compensate for the lack of face to face interaction, we are encouraged by how effective they have been.
OUR DAILY TEAM MEETING
Our daily “standup” meeting first thing in the morning has really helped keep an open dialogue of items that are pressing for the day. In addition to identifying the most important issues we need to tackle that day; it has really helped to keep the team stay connected. We had a suggestion from one of the team members for a virtual happy hour.
We have found that team chats, in addition to being able to create a quick voice or video call has really helped keep vital communications going strong.
As all our documents and other tools have already been in the cloud, our actual workflows haven’t really changed. It is just business as usual from that perspective.
Our usage of Microsoft Teams has jumped since the start of the lockdown
Some team photos from their home office.
