A traveler goes through security screening at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago on Thursday, March 12, 2020. (Photo: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg)

The vast majority of law firms in Illinois can breathe easy—in relative terms—as the governor's stay-at-home order specifically designates "legal services" as an essential business that is "encouraged to remain open."

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday ordered all nonessential business operating in Illinois to close, joining the ranks of states such as California, New York and Pennsylvania that have announced mandatory closures in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Flanked by state officials as well as Chicago Mayor (and former Mayer Brown partner) Lori Lightfoot, Pritzker during a press conference said the order doesn't affect grocery stores, gas stations and medical providers.

"We are doing all that we can to maintain as much normalcy as possible while taking the steps that we must to protect you. That brings me to what will change all non essential businesses must stop operating," Pritzker said. "If you can work from home and aren't already doing so, now is the time when you must."

But the executive order released by his office lists 23 different kinds of businesses that are considered "essential businesses and operations," including "professional services, such as legal services, accounting services, insurance services, real estate services (including appraisal and title services)."

All of the essential businesses listed in Pritzker's executive order are required to engage in social distancing, including designating six-foot spaces and having sanitizing products available. The governor's order goes into effect Saturday evening and expires April 7.

Pritzker's order appears to be less strict than the shelter-in-place the village of Oak Park—a neighboring suburb of Chicago—implemented on Friday. That order says professional services such as legal services can stay open "when necessary to assist in compliance with legally mandated activities." That means attorneys like Shanita Straw, who operates the small general-practice firm Golden Law, are prohibited from opening their offices to receive mail.

"Working remotely is not ideal as we are a general practice law firm and we handle estate planning, real estate and general business matters and those clients are affected because we cannot meet with them to receive or deliver documents for signature," Straw said.

Big Law has transitioned to having thousands of lawyers and professional staff work remotely in an effort to stop the virus from spreading, infecting others and further destabilizing the country. That includes a number of Chicago-area law firms and offices.

"We are now working almost entirely remotely in Chicago," said David Pope, Chicago administrative partner and co-chair of the class action practice group at Benesch, in a statement. "We have a couple of non-legal personnel who have been keeping the physical office running, but otherwise all of our attorneys and staff are working remotely using their laptops."

But even as Big Law goes remote, there are still some things that have to be done by hand. Marc Benjamin, the partner in charge of Eversheds Sutherland's Chicago office, said that, even though he and his colleagues have been working remotely this past week, they've still had to send at least one person into the office to process physical mail, accept packages, and check to see if everything's running.

"If you're open for business, you need to have somebody there," said Benjamin said, adding that the firm is paying for employees' parking so they don't have to take public transportation.

Personal injury law firms such as Levin & Perconi rely on physical mail—that's how the office sends and receives paper checks.

"That's a critical function that we'll have one person at a time tasked to maintain because our clients are counting on that," said Steven Levin, the founder and senior partner of Levin & Perconti, in a statement.

K&L Gates has one answer to the mail problem: They've sent all-in-one printer/scanners/copiers to a few key administrative staff members, said Celeste Herrera, the director of the firm's administration in Chicago, in a statement.

"The postal mail will go to one person, who will scan and distribute it. FedEx, UPS and DHL document deliveries will go to another person who will do the same," Herrera said.

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