COVID-19 has brought plenty of bad news, but it's also forging bonds among law firms that might normally be competitors.

Some South Florida firms have banded to create task forces aimed at helping commercial and individual clients in their time of need, while others are discovering new partnerships through internal collaborations.

Coral Gables attorney Luis Salazar has helped create the Florida Business Community Task Force, a pop-up service for local businesses worried about a flailing economy.

"Communities bounce back when they work together. The idea of a loner surviving is good for the movies, but it's not real," he said. "So I wanted to pull together a group of firms that are a similar size to mine that have different skill sets, that bring different practice areas and knowledge."

And it's not just law firms.

Luiz Salazar,Salazar Law in Coral Gables. Courtesy photo. Luiz Salazar,Salazar Law in Coral Gables. Courtesy photo.

The task force also includes professionals in accounting, marketing, finance and other sectors. What started with mini seminars on critical topics has expanded into pooling expertise to help particular clients. They're conducting a survey of commercial banks to determine what they're doing in response to borrower requests for extensions, breaches of loan confidence and other issues.

"It's been reassuring to know that we have a mix of individuals who are available to address any kind of issues that clients come up with," Salazar said.

Schlesinger Law Group founder Michael Schlesinger in Miami has joined forces with Mark Raymond of Nelson Mullins and multiple other attorneys to offer free legal advice to clients, friends of clients and even friends of their friends — particularly those confused about the payroll relief act and how to tackle layoffs and furloughs.

"Although we are adversaries, everyone realizes that this is a crisis," Schlesinger said. "We're working together on extensions, and I see, except for maybe one or two exceptions, a heightened degree of professionalism and good faith with colleagues."

Raymond said he's seem a similar sense of collegiality between lawyers who've agreed to put less important cases aside to focus on more pressing issues — like providing pro bono assistance to people with underlying medical conditions or compromised immune systems who've been detained by immigration authorities.

"We're going to be filing a number of cases on their behalf asking that they be released," Raymond said. "Our view is they shouldn't be exposed."

Schlesinger and Raymond said COVID-19 has shown their colleagues that work is not life.

"People are hurting, and tending to their needs far outstrips the need to file another document in the court," Raymond said.

Likewise, Jose A. Rodriguez of Rennert Vogel Mandler & Rodriguez in Miami has partnered with bankruptcy and insurance attorneys from multiple firms, including Genovese Joblove and Battista, Ver Ploeg & Marino and Levine Kellogg Lehman Schneider + Grossman to produce a COVID-19 task force.

"It has been heartening to see the willingness of our strategic partners to collaborate in this multidisciplinary response group ensuring proper legal advice for our clients," Rodriguez said.

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Contract lawyers and litigators unite

Transactional attorney Jessica Shraybman of Shraybman Law in Miami has teamed with local litigators, who've been helping her firm understand what its protections are and calling to ask her how about tweaking the tone of their messaging to clients.

Jessica Shraybman, Shraybman Law in Miami. Courtesy photo. Jessica Shraybman, Shraybman Law in Miami. Courtesy photo.

After COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, Shraybman said she's handled more disputes in past couple of weeks than she has in two years combined.

While the biggest challenge has been managing expectations of understandably impatient clients, worried about whether contractual obligations will change, Shraybman said she's enjoyed having casual conversations with litigators.

"Most of the time when you're getting an email or a phone call from a litigator it's not usually with good news, so it's nice to be having these conversations out of the context of an actual litigation," Shraybman said. "There's kind of a general sentiment around the legal practice that we are adversarial and that we are intimidating and all of this, but with the conversations I've been having, it makes me wonder if maybe that will have a lasting impact."

While Shraybman said litigators generally tend to approach client issues from a risk-averse, conflict standpoint, transactional attorneys try to help clients understand the full scope and nuances of a contractual relationship and the expectations they should have. So COVID-19 has allowed for a unique mashup.

"That might be wishful thinking, but maybe this will lead us to take a step closer to starting things from a place of collaboration and trust rather than skepticism and animosity," Shraybman said.

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'Never seen anything like this'

Although Bilzin Sumberg always encourages internal collaboration, environmental attorney John Chibbaro and financial lawyer Andrej Micovic say the firm is cross-pollinating its practice areas in new ways.

Litigators, transactional attorneys, estate planning lawyers, project development specialists and others have teamed to keep track of an influx of rushed but well-intentioned government regulations, so they can quickly translate what they mean to clients.

"It really takes a big team to digest everything," Micovic said. "When you have something like this happen and there's all of these regulations being put out, there's also, unfortunately, a lot of misinformation out there. So we've really taken it upon ourselves to stay on top of everything and make sure we're able to get info out to our clients and to others, even."

It's certainly a first for Chibbaro and Micovic, who've never seen anything affect such a broad swath of people and produce so many queries and concerns.

"We've taken questions in everything from estate planning, to food service, to landlord issues with contracts and rent," Chibbaro said. "I've never seen anything like this."

But they say the global crisis has forced collaboration that wouldn't normally have happened, revealing just how interdependent some practices areas really are.

"I think these interrelationships that we didn't know existed or weren't aware of or weren't focused on are going be more important going forward," Chibbaro said. "And given the friendships and camaraderie that have developed on our team under stress, if there's a small silver lining I think that's one of them."

Christopher Knight of Fowler White Burnett in Miami is part of a new business emergency response team, aimed at helping small businesses and led by shareholders specializing in labor and employment, bankruptcy, real estate, maritime law and other areas.

And though the firm has always provided similar services, it's taken on a new lease of life during the pandemic.

The biggest challenge is "getting used to not being able to walk down the hall, knock on the door and get your answer," according to Knight. He said colleagues are taking more calls in night and weekend than they used to — now that clients are juggling work and child care in the day.

Knight has also been "comparing notes" with other firms about how they're responding to the pandemic — which, though not unusual, has been happening way more often.

"It's something we've always done, but it was probably one phone call a year, rather than several," he said.

Knight said he's hopeful that, once the economy picks up again, law firms could expand their businesses based on these task force models.

"It hasn't changed what we do, it's how we do it. Everybody's routine is different. You're used to being in the courthouse that doesn't exist anymore. You're used to having meetings with several people to work out client strategies, and now it's a series of emails, phone calls and Zoom chats," Knight said. "A lot of clients who've called have found out that there are solutions out there, so the feedback has been some relief."

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