As COVID-19 continues to force more attorneys to work remotely, many are finding working from home isn't a simple transition for the uninitiated. Besides balancing work-life and juggling child care at home, tech challenges can also further complicate attorneys' daily workflow and potentially disrupt billing.

For some, remote work can ultimately mean slower connections.

"A lot of firms have some capabilities around it [remote access] but they don't have all the capabilities they need," said Terry Dohrmann, chief revenue officer of cloud-based practice management platform Litify. "We've spoken to some firms that have remote access into document management, but it's done through an older VPN model and the speeds are super slow."

Dohrmann noted attorneys are "used to working on the same server beside their colleague. Now they are VPNing, [and] the function is a lot more clunky and peoples' frustration levels are rising."

Along with slower speeds, providing additional VPNs and access to collaboration platforms to staffers and lawyers can take time.

"If firms have not prepared for this, they need to work quickly to increase capacity for technologies like VPN or Remote Desktop to accommodate demand," said Matt Coatney, chief technology officer of HBR IT Managed Services. "But all those activities could have a time lag. It could take days or weeks to get new hardware and licenses," he noted.

Along with connection issues, observers noted that some law firms don't have the electronics needed to handle the levels of remote work now needed.

"One of the large issues I've seen speaking with some folks and leaders in the industry is they just don't have enough computers available for their workforce to take home of enterprise-quality," said Timothy Bowers, managing partner of VLP Law Group, a cloud-based law firm.

Additionally, law firms need to verify if their staffer or lawyer's internet connectivity is sufficient to run the programs needed, he added. If the transition to remote work isn't smooth and staff and lawyers need persistent assistance from IT, business disruptions may occur.

"Inevitably they will lose billable hours trying to get their network up and running to the level it was in their office," Bowers said.

Tech and security experts stressed an established remote working plan avoids a last-minute scramble and likely follow-up complications when quickly implementing software and training. Still, even for law firms acclimated to working remotely, this new reality brings some new questions.

Take Pennsylvania-based personal injury and worker's compensation firm KBG Injury Law, for example. Though it has leveraged remote access working capabilities and provided laptops to lawyers and staff previously, the prospect of government-mandated shutdowns and ongoing quarantines means the firm may need to go fully virtual. 

"There will be certain aspects of the business we will have to be creative about. For example, mail," Kline said. "Fortunately in this day and age, paper mail has dropped dramatically but there still is some." The firm has explored forwarding the firms' mail to an employee's home and the employee scanning it into KBG's document management system.

Similarly, KBG also receives paper-based settlement checks from insurance companies that the firm and potentially the client are required to endorse. Pennsylvania law is unclear if online notarization is sufficient, Kline said, but alternatives to in-person notarizing would likely be considered if COVID-19 continues to disrupt normal business operations.

Still, for many firms this may be a "trial by fire" to determine if they are equipped to handle infrastructure stress or if other solutions are needed to secure data and provide legal services, Kline said.

"There's now an ethical obligation for a basic level of tech competency, and I think for some firms they are finding out if they satisfy that requirement or not. Most firms are, but I'm sure some are not," he said.