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Some of the people in my profession are garbage. Many law firms are open business as usual and I’m ready to start naming them.
Unfollow me if you disagree or I can block you. If you follow me you should already know IDGAF.
This seems to have taken off over night. Here are the messages I’m getting: we are afraid to go to work. It’s business as usual. Our firm will only shut down if required to. Our firm isn’t protecting us. We are afraid we will be fired if we raise our health and safety concerns.
The lawyers get to work from home but the supper staff and students must come to the office. The firm isn’t listening to our concerns.
I’m an assistant and even if I don’t bill, my health and safety is just as important as timekeepers
We don’t want to stop working because we get pay by hour and don’t have any paid leave
But I know we are not helping with stopping the virus ...
But I know we are not helping with stopping the virus ...
From one student: I worried I was over reacting because my firm seems to think it’s not a big deal. I appreciate tweets like yours because it makes me feel less alone.
How about contract doc review people still working in a room full of people when the firm they work has sent the rest of the team home? Doc review can easily be done remotely. These contractors are paid hourly with no leave so they are coming to work because they need to be paid
I have zero to gain by being the loud mouth on Twitter. If you think I'm being an a-hole and choose not to deal with me in the future, I'm ok with that. I am using my voice to express legitimate concerns of people with less power than me.
And if you got defensive and ticked off at my tweets, well ... good. That was the point. Your staff is afraid to tell you that they are terrified.
And if you can't see a way for your team to work from home, what would you do if you and/or everyone on your team was diagnosed with COVID-19 but had no symptoms? Because you should be doing that now.
Oh, and I have a team member who is 100% remote all the time, who may very well be recovering from COVID-19 herself, and she says many clerk friends are being forced to work in their regular cubicles so close together, just like a regular day.
I can’t keep track of all the people who are contacting me about this now. Let’s just start with large firms in any city. They are probably still open. Ask around and find out what they are doing for their staff.
If one large firm stays open then all the large firm stay open. It’s time to start shaming your colleagues.
But really it’s the clients who need to start asking their lawyers what they are doing to protect their staff. If you are a big client of a firm you have the power to make them change things.
McCague Borlack, advising staff not to use the communal cutlery is not gonna cut it.
Lawson Lundel in Vancouver
Morgan and Morgan in Orlando. And many other big firms there. One of you needs to be the first to close to the public.
Epiq in Toronto.
I’m actually told Legal Clinics are pretty bad. In some situations your work maybe essential but what are you doing to protect your staff?
Oh. And some firms are just firing their articling students mid term
And suggesting that if they want to finish the term they can volunteer for the firm
It was the cutlery thing that put me over the edge. I am naming names now and my DM‘s are open.
And just look at this thread. Some people outed themselves. Some of the people who have liked and re-tweeted some of my tweets are working at these firms where they are required to go in and work.
There’s literally dozens of other messages that I received people are too afraid to name their firms. And some of the firms that I’ve named I’ve gotten multiple messages about.
Real estate firms. I’m looking at you. What are you doing to protect your team? You can’t be doing things the way that we normally do them right now. There’s a group of lawyers on Facebook trying to figure all of this out. You need to figure it out too.
@YadeshaS is writing an article on this. I’m not going to break any confidence is that have been given to me, but students if you are having troubles with your firm during this crisis, you may want to speak to her.
Law firms in many US states are now being mandated to close. What are you going to do then?
Some firms are going to defy the orders to be closed. One in Sacramento, CA.
Many people messaging me are saying they are taking comfort in knowing they aren't alone. Reader: their firms are making THEM feel crazy for being concerned about their health & safety right now.
So at least one of the firms has accused me of defamation. Tell me again how I’m an opportunist.
Stoel Rives now appears to be telling employees to stay home. Thanks for doing the right thing.
Ha. Someone on here called me an opportunist. He has since deleted kg tweets and is now tweeting out advice for employees impacted by COVID-19. Who’s the opportunist now? I’ve unblocked him.
He’s blocked me from being able to message him so I cannot sent the “who’s an opportunist now!?” message.
Greenberg-Taurig (sp?) you know when Issac Newton did all those great things, he was actually in quarantine and not an employee required to report for work in a law office, right?
But in good news, one other firm has allowed students and staff to stay home, in part because of this thread. An Ontario firm doing real estate.
Oh. Speaking of real estate, firms charging over 100 bucks to accept a wire is some serious bullshit.
Um, Morgan and Morgan in Miami, are you assigning the ability to WFH based on seniority?
