Just over half of Georgia lawyers responding to an ALM Media survey reported a decline in their law practice's income because of the novel coronavirus pandemic—and most expected a further drop in new business.

The survey results signal that the pandemic could have long-lasting economic consequences for their practices. Fully 51% of the lawyers said income was down, and almost 61% expected reduced income in the near future. New case volume had diminished for 69% of respondents, and 45% expected fewer calls going forward from prospective clients, due to court closures and other effects of the pandemic.

Most of the 74 respondents to the mid-April informal survey were either civil trial lawyers on the plaintiffs or defense side, criminal defense lawyers or family lawyers. And most were either solo practitioners or had small firms.

Almost 60% of those with decreased incomes said it had dropped by less than 50%.

But criminal defense attorneys have been particularly hard hit. Jackie Patterson, a criminal defense and personal injury attorney in Buckhead, said his revenue has decreased by about 75% from criminal defense cases and by about half from personal injury cases.

"With the courthouses being closed, criminal defendants know there is no urgency in hiring a lawyer," said Patterson, who handles everything from speeding to murder charges.

The police are writing citations for minor offenses instead of sending defendants to jail, he added, affecting his criminal defense practice. His personal injury practice, mostly handling auto accidents, has slowed because people aren't driving as much. 

"I think when the courts reopen my phone will begin to ring again," said Patterson, who gets his cases from word-of-mouth and TV advertising. "But it may take until we get a vaccine for the virus for things to get back to normal." 

Family Law Suffers

While family lawyer Lani Skipper has seen an increase in people seeking divorces, the new calls she's fielding have been from those with no money to pay for them.

Skipper, a solo with offices in Villa Rica and Dallas in Georgia, said domestic and guardian ad litem cases make up about 60% of her practice. She's received plenty of calls from people "who've been at home with their spouse for 60 days now and want a divorce," she said, "but they don't have any money." 

Skipper said a lot of the callers are waiters or people with jobs at gyms, hair or nail salons and who are now out of work. While Georgia restaurants, gyms and salons have reopened in theory, she said, they either are operating well below capacity because of new rules about spacing customers and other protective measures—or they haven't reopened at all.

"I've gotten an uptick in calls but not an uptick in people who can pay for the divorce. That's the problem," she said, adding that her guardian ad litem cases are at a standstill, except for occasional Zoom hearings, because of court closures. "I have a lot of frustrated domestic clients right now."

Skipper also handles disputes for local governments and homeowners associations, and she said that work has stayed steady. "I keep hoping that we will come out of this fog where everything is stagnant—but it hasn't quite happened yet," she said. 

Extended Lull

Plaintiffs lawyer Richard Kopelman of Kopelman Sitton said his existing cases are keeping him busy for now, but he expects a decline in new cases that could eventually affect his income. "It's not a volume practice, so I'm very used to feast or famine," he said.

Kopelman said his firm's business, which includes personal injury, medical malpractice and nuisance cases like sewage flooding, is all referrals, so he doesn't expect a sharp decrease in new cases. But the phone is ringing less right now. "The silver lining to COVID-19 was the decrease in Atlanta traffic," he said, but that also means fewer disputes arising from collisions. 

For now, Kopelman has work to do. "There's a percolation period while I work up cases," he explained, adding that he has a number in the presuit phase right now, including one for medical negligence with 4,600 pages of medical records to review. 

"But the lull [in new cases] I anticipate seeing as a result of COVID-19," he said, could have economic effects 12, 24 or even 36 months from now.

The pandemic has already affected solo business litigator Marc Hershovitz's practice. He said his business clients are delaying any litigation over disputes or commercial collections that is not essential, as happened after the 2008 financial crisis. 

"It's not the courts being closed. It's businesses conserving cash," he said. "Small and mid-market businesses are just frozen." 

Few new cases are coming in at the moment, Hershovitz said, so he's working on motions and discovery for client litigation that's already been filed. "Destruction might bring creativity. In three months, people could be trying to start businesses, but it's not happening now," he said.