Mitch Bierman, Steven Solomon in "brandanna" and Bowman Brown

With Florida setting a record Thursday for new coronavirus cases, law firms are taking different approaches to returning to office operations under looser business restrictions after most employees sheltered in place for three months.

GrayRobinson, with 14 Florida offices, wants everyone back in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale offices starting Monday after the Orlando office "reboarded" Monday. The eight-office Shutts & Bowen is about half-staffed. The coronavirus committee at the 175-attorney Kelley Kronenberg opted to open all 11 offices Monday at 25% capacity, all volunteers.

Mitch Bierman, Miami office managing director at the four-office Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman, is leaving the door open to a long-term switch to working from home.

"I am finding that a lot of people are in no hurry to return to the office. They have gotten used to and comfortable with working from home, and many are still very concerned about contracting COVID-19," he said by email. "We will see how things will play out as we get closer to a cure or vaccine, but I think for many people, working remotely will be a permanent change."

GrayRobinson is welcoming people back with a "brandanna" — a bandanna emblazoned with the law firm's logo — and directions for the many ways to wear it.

"Everyone is trying to figure out what are the new best practices. Nobody wants to be left behind in this world as potentially being seen as not doing the most," Miami managing partner Steven Solomon said. "It's the new keeping up with the Joneses."

Shutts & Bowen opted for an "are-you-comfortable-coming-in policy. We have not asked anyone to come in that wasn't entirely comfortable with coming in," said Bowman Brown, executive committee chairman at the 300-attorney, 600-employee firm. "That's resulted in some people just not coming in and working from home, and a few of us dinosaurs who like to come into the office and whose cars don't know better, we've been coming in."

Law firms are considered essential businesses in Florida, so many never officially closed their doors, but most employees had the option of working from home. Small numbers were assigned to skeleton office crews if people were needed to handle incoming calls, mail, accounting, servers and maintenance.

A downturn in production was expected with virtual operations. But with advance work by the information technology staff, Brown said: "We haven't missed a beat. In fact I'm astounded how productive we are working remotely."

The law firm leaders commented on Miami's notorious traffic. Given the chance to skip commuting, Brown said, "My gosh, why wouldn't you want to work from home?"

Internal and external video conferencing was expanded and will be kept at higher levels than before. 

GrayRobinson has hosted virtual inter-office mixers. The Miami and Jacksonville offices got together for one, and Solomon noted that never happened before COVID-19. The icebreaker was about what everyone was watching on Netflix.

Shutts & Bowen's executive committee met virtually every day at the beginning of the pandemic and tapered off to weekly. The video preference comes with policy directives revised this week saying: "In-office meetings with clients are strongly discouraged until further notice. Office visitors are strongly discouraged."

In the office, firms are abiding by new elevator restrictions set by their landlords, which in some cases mean only one occupant per ride. Floor markers reinforce social-distancing policies. Shutts conference rooms operate at 50% capacity with a 30-minute period set aside between meetings for cleaning.

Firms are taking their cues from Gov. Ron DeSantis and county managers. With over half of the state's cases, South Florida has been the slowest to allow businesses, beaches and parks to resume operations.

State courts are open for emergency proceedings only through late July, and South Florida federal trials have been delayed until at least Aug. 31. While much of Florida's service sector is operating at a 50% level, South Florida is further behind. Standalone bars don't have permission to reopen, but restaurants are operating at limited capacity.

Law firms are deciding what to do individually.

"We will be reopening regular office hours with the expectation that all of our employees will be returning to the office on the 22nd," Solomon said. "If we have to make some adjustments, that's something that we're going to have to do on an ad hoc basis. The mantra that we're sort of living by now is revisit as conditions change and be flexible."

Shutts & Bowen hasn't reached any firm conclusions with government policies in flux and positive tests results setting a one-day record Tuesday and Thursday after a steady climb.

Some public health officials ominously warn Florida may be the next coronavirus epicenter. A total of 3,207 cases were added Thursday.

Holland & Knight managing partner Steven Sonberg feels no "immediate pressure" for employees to return, and decisions on phased reopenings will be made office by office based on local conditions and needs at the 1,400-attorney firm. "The first phase will likely be voluntary and won't occur for several weeks," he said in a statement Thursday.

Shutts & Bowen intentionally plans to lag behind other businesses.

"We will follow probably by a couple of weeks whatever the state is recommending or mandating and the local government, so when the all clear sounds for Miami, we'll ask our staff to come in probably a couple of weeks afterward," Brown said. Even then, office stints will be rotated to keep staffing at about a 50% level.

"We're taking every precaution that we possibly can and so far so good, and if people really want to work from home and they're productive, we'll probably be very flexible on that," he said.

Barbara Repandis, chief human resources officer at Kelley Kronenberg, said the firm adopted things like daily temperatures checks and mandatory face mask rules at all offices. Workday arrangements are flexible at home and in the office

"We continue to provide our employees with flex-time opportunities to assist them with child care needs and also allow employees who decide to return to the office to return on a part-time basis and continue working from home on certain days if they need to," she said. Seeing opportunity in a crisis, the firm is encouraging new ideas for dealing with the new normal "as opposed to approaching this novel situation in a neutral or negative manner."

No one seems anxious to hop on a plane for business trips. Partner retreats have been canceled as a health care precaution and for cost savings.

Solomon reflected on how much things have changed in a very short time.

"It was awkward for me the first time I had to step into an environment with a lot of other people," he said. "It seemed weird."