Drew Eckl Escalates Remote-Working to Mandatory During Pandemic
Other firms are following suit. Eversheds Sutherland directed all personnel to work from home except for the very few who still need to be onsite.
March 18, 2020 at 10:15 AM
4 minute read
One of Atlanta's largest litigation defense firms, Drew Eckl & Farnham, on Monday made remote work mandatory for all lawyers and staff to limit potential exposure to the fast-spreading coronavirus.
That was an upgrade from the voluntary remote-work policy that Drew Eckl, like other large firms, had just recently instituted. Only about a dozen essential operations staff are still working from the firm's downtown headquarters in the SunTrust building, said managing partner Joe Chancey. Usually, there are 200 lawyers and staff in the office.
Other firms are starting to follow suit. Trans-Atlantic firm Eversheds Sutherland, which has U.S. operations based in Atlanta, tightened its policy on Tuesday, directing all personnel to work from home except for the very few who still need to be on -site. Only the previous day, Eversheds Sutherland had instituted a voluntary remote-work policy for lawyers and staff firmwide.
"We took a stronger stance today to say that, barring a real need to be in the office, we expect all employees to be working from home with a handful of operational staff," said Eversheds Sutherland's U.S. co-chair, Mark Wasserman.
At Drew Eckl, Chancey said, "Monday, our emergency response team met again and recommended to our board that we escalate working from home to mandatory."
"This is unprecedented for our firm, but we are all going through an unprecedented time right now," he said.
The emergency response team is made up of 10 people, including Chancey and three other lawyers—the firm's general counsel, compliance partner and insurance coverage specialist–plus operations department heads.
Chancey added that they were "very confident we could do it without a great loss of productivity or efficiency," because the firm's IT director had already been preparing for all-remote work as a general emergency scenario.
Those still working from Drew Eckl's headquarters include Chancey and operations leaders for the firm's IT, accounting, HR, records and marketing functions. They need to work from the office, Chancey said, because "we are still a little bit subject to paper—like incoming mail."
Since mail to attorneys could contain sensitive data about a case, Drew Eckl has designated records department staff who are certified in handling that information to sort and scan mail as it comes in, so they can deliver it remotely via emaIl to the firm's attorneys and staff, said the firm's business development director, Christy Walsh.
Drew Eckl's IT director, Jason Landers, said his team increased bandwidth for secure remote work capabilities over the weekend by 800%. He said the firm has made its IT systems scalable over the last two years, so it can expand or decrease capacity on very short notice.
"We stress-tested and pushed it out," Landers said. "Some people who hadn't worked remotely needed help to get online, but there were surprisingly few significant issues with that."
Users can log into Drew Eckl's secure remote desktop system from their personal devices, Landers said, and the firm has distributed its pool of loaner laptops to people who did not have ones.
Drew Eckl ordered additional laptops on Monday, Chancey added. Most have already arrived with the final ones expected by Friday. "It turns out it's a little easier to get laptops than it is to get toilet paper this week," he said.
Drew Eckl has 260 lawyers and staff in total, Chancey said, with a few people located in offices outside its SunTrust building headquarters–at Peachtree Center and small outposts in Albany and Brunswick. For now, the eight people in Albany and seven in Brunswick are still on voluntary status for remote work, due to the lower population density, but the emergency response team is assessing that daily, he said.
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllHurricane Helene's Impact On Asheville, North Carolina: How Public and Private Attorneys Dealt With Closures, Safety and Sanitation
Second Circuit Ruling Expands VPPA Scope: What Organizations Need to Know
6 minute readBig Law Practice Leaders 'Bullish' That Second Trump Presidency Will Be Good for Business
3 minute readBig Law Lawyers Fan Out for Election Day Volunteering in Call Centers and Litigation
7 minute readLaw Firms Mentioned
Trending Stories
- 1Gordon Rees Opens 80th Office, ‘Collaboration Hub’ in Palo Alto
- 2The White Stripes Drop Copyright Claim Against Trump Campaign
- 3Law Firm Accused of Barratry for Allegedly Soliciting Crash Victims
- 4Carlton Fields Downsizes in Move to New Atlanta Office
- 5Trump's Selection of Zeldin to Head EPA Draws Surprise, Little Hope of Avoiding Deregulation
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250