In Seclusion

Casandra Laskowski Technology & Research Services Librarian at Duke Law School has the responsibility of assisting law school students, staff, and faculty through some of the teaching and technology challenges of a remote classroom. In addition, she also chairs the Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the American Association of Law Libraries. With the murder of George Floyd and the civil unrest to protest Police brutality and systemic racism, Cas says that people need the space to step back, access their personal situation, and to have time to think, speak, and hopefully heal.

Remember, we may all be In Seclusion, but we’re in this together.

Host: Greg Lambert (@glambert)

Mike Whelan, author of “Lawyer Forward: Finding Your Place in the Future of Law” is a lawyer, author, legal innovator, and recently an Above the Law podcast host. As we begin to make our way back to our respective office or identify our more permanent workplaces, will we go back to the old habits and schedules, or will we take what we’ve learned over the past few months and apply it to create a new model of working going forward?

Remember, we may all be In Seclusion, but we're in this together.

Host: Greg Lambert (@glambert)

Alycia Sutor, Managing Director at GrowthPlay, coaches lawyers, law firms, and other legal organizations on the need to get out of their comfort zones, and quickly embrace the changes as a new way of being. Those are just not skills that many in the legal industry are used to using. But those who find ways of quickly deploying these skills will be the ones who recover the fastest. For your colleagues who are struggling right now, especially with the issues of racial discrimination, she notes that it is important for you to acknowledge what is going on, be present, and be silent and listen.

Remember, we may all be In Seclusion, but we're in this together.

Host: Greg Lambert (@glambert)

For Cornell H. Winston, Law Librarian at United States Attorney's Office in Southern California, there have been a number of small and large changes affecting his law library and records departments. While he is generally an optimist, he knows that change will happen. People who were never allowed to work from home will not accept that limitation any longer. Workers who once made hours-long commutes to and from work haven’t missed a beat while working from home. They will not be coming back to work the way they did pre-COVID. And while Cornell may have not experienced a global pandemic before, he is familiar with economic and racial unrest. But as he says, when you see it, you learn how to ride it.

Remember, we may all be In Seclusion, but we're in this together.

Host: Greg Lambert (@glambert)

Celeste Smith, the Director of Education for the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), works on finding educational opportunities for those of us who consider ourselves life-long learners. While we are in an industry of very intelligent people, the current situation has taught us that we can not be tied to what we think we know based on our own history and experiences. She notes that just as we did when our physical workspaces closed, we do not have the luxury of taking our time to craft long-term strategies before we need to take action. We have to learn and do all at the same time.

Remember, we may all be In Seclusion, but we're in this together.

Host: Greg Lambert (@glambert)

Ian Nelson of Hotshot Legal believes that as we come out of the pandemic, there will be completely different expectations when it comes to how legal professionals want to train and learn. No more hour-long lectures with little to no interaction. Instead, we'll have shorter lessons with flipped classroom styles where the information is processed beforehand, and the classroom is used to discuss and relate to the information. While Hotshot developed many of these ideas over the past few years, there hasn't necessarily been the impetus within the legal industry to look at these types of short, just-in-time training programs. There's nothing like a crisis to effectuate change. 

Link: ebook: Remote Training for Associates

Remember, we may all be In Seclusion, but we're in this together.

Host: Greg Lambert (@glambert)

Vivia Chen is Senior Columnist at ALM, and Chief Blogger for The Careerist. She talks with me about how the pandemic may finally be the impetus to break large law firms from their vanity. With the cultural and societal changes that will most likely come out of the pandemic, there will be no need for lavish law offices or high-end client events to impress those who no longer want to come to your offices or attend your events. There may be a balancing of the scales between competing law firms based more on the substance of the firms’ quality of service than in the quality of their coffee bar. We cover this as well as how women’s needs are handled as we begin reopening offices, and what the real metric of success will be for law firms in 2020.

Remember, we may all be In Seclusion, but we're in this together.

Host: Greg Lambert (@glambert)

This is episode 50. For something I called a miniseries, 50 episodes seem like a lot. Thanks to all who have come on the show to share their stories of preparedness, adjustment, and vision for the future. As we continue indefinitely, I hope that we all remain healthy and safe. This week has been especially hard for many of us and for many of our friends and colleagues. As we move to a slow return to work, let's make it a better environment than the one we left behind. We may be in seclusion at the moment, but we'll eventually come back together.

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Not all of us left the office back in March. Many of our office services staff remained to make sure that the workplaces most of us left behind, were still operational and ready for when we make our way back to a physical office. Clare Hart, CEO of Williams Lea, provided many of the people who were designated the essential employees who kept the lights on in our offices these past few months. I asked her to talk with me about how she worked with her clients to make that happen, all while keeping everyone safe.

Remember, we may all be In Seclusion, but we're in this together.

Host: Greg Lambert (@glambert)

Maya Markovich, Chief Growth Officer at Nextlaw Labs, thinks that the current environment within the legal industry is the perfect time to rethink the old ways of doing things. The time is ripe to try new processes as well as experiment in ways that we might not normally try because we have somewhat of a safety net to try and fail with less judgment. For those with an entrepreneurial mindset, this might be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for to put your ideas into action.

Remember, we may all be In Seclusion, but we're in this together.

Host: Greg Lambert (@glambert)