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44 ¦ AUGUST 31, 2020 OPINION

The Pandemic Gives Young Lawyers a
Chance to Reconsider Their Career Path

By The Young Lawyer Editorial Board

I Credit: Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock.com
t is hard to overstate the changes that the CO- tice is the right one for their immediate future, and
VID-19 pandemic has wrought for American whether a legal career even remains the right path.
lives—our ways of working, schooling and Over the past few months, the legal industry has
spending leisure time have drastically evolved implemented changes to its ways of working and
in the past several months. Businesses, schools, its business models. While some law firms had
restaurants and museums have all worked to cre- become more flexible with work from home prior
atively craft solutions to address the disruption, to the pandemic, face time remained paramount.
the new realities of the pandemic and the current The pandemic has demonstrated that telework is
economic climate. The legal industry, from law feasible for almost every firm employee and many
firms to courthouses, has experienced significant legal activities, including court hearings, arbitra-
change as well. Attorneys, particularly young at- tions and mediations. While teleconferencing
torneys, should use this time as an opportunity to is not ideal for every scenario, in others, such as
evaluate and address their careers in light of these mediation, it has proven its efficiency. Instead of
changes to determine whether the organization, spending eight hours in a conference room wait-
practice area and legal market in which they prac- ing to speak to the mediator for 20 minutes every

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