Virtual or dispersed law firms have caught some attention lately, given that the cloud-centric and often remote approach they regularly take towards legal work has been indefinitely foisted on more traditional brick-and-mortar firms adapting to COVID-19 pandemic. But aside from experience with remote working, are virtual firms any more resilient to a virus-inflected economy?

Nationwide shutdowns and stay-at-home orders have already started to take their toll on the legal industry, with law firms seeing layoffs, salary freezes and furloughs.

However, the virtual firm of FisherBroyles doesn't have many associate salaries to cut, instead focusing its growth efforts around more experienced, partner-level attorneys. Triple-teaming matters with superfluous numbers of associates is seen as another unnecessary expense, right up there with more traditional overhead such as large office spaces.

The firm has no plans to institute furloughs or pay freezes. In fact, co-founder Kevin Broyles thinks that the economic downturn could actually drive more new partners to the firm, attorneys who may currently be experiencing some of those very same economic hardships inside more traditional practices. And with new partners might come new business.

"A lot of times clients are hiring a firm because they have a trusted legal adviser at that firm. And if that trusted legal adviser goes from Firm A to Firm B, a lot of the times the client is going to go from Firm A to Firm B," Broyles said.

Other virtual firms may also be seeing an uptick in new job applications. Such is the case with Culhane Meadows Haughian & Walsh, where managing partner Grant Walsh said one of the chief impediments the firm has faced with regards to growth and recruiting has eroded over the last few weeks. Stuck-at-home attorneys who may have previously been reluctant to work virtually are finding that they enjoy conducting business from their couch.

"A lot of recruiters were hesitant to propose cloud-based firms to their clients that were at traditional firms. But now all of the sudden they are coming back around and saying, 'Hey, I've got clients who are specifically asking can you help me find a firm where I can do more of this work-from-home stuff,'" Walsh said.

Still, virtual firms can't always count on new partners bringing old clients along for the ride. While some clients may be loyal to an individual attorney, others may be more attached to the reputation, prestige or even comfort-level of a firm itself. Jarno Vanto, a partner at the brick-and-mortar firm of Crowell & Moring, argued clients may be even more reluctant to venture outside of their legacy firms in the midst of COVID-19.

"Clients that experience distress in this crisis now rely on their old go-to firms, which makes new business development for nontraditional/virtual firms that much more difficult," Vanto said.

He also noted that since even traditional law firms have been forced into the position of working remotely for the foreseeable future, virtual firms might no longer have any distinct or inherent advantage in terms of how they handle the actual day-to-day legal work that comes their way. For example, the COVID-19 crisis may be pushing traditional law firms to adopt knowledge or enterprise management platforms and other efficiency friendly technologies.

The real test may come post-COVID-19, as clients, their legal counsel and the economy adapt to a new normal—or fall back into old habits. Clients might no longer tolerate traditional firms that are unable to replicate the flexibility of virtual law offices.

"This entire experience is probably going to even put more of a microscope on those firms that are still stuck in the old ways and not willing to adapt and accept technology as way to become more efficient," Walsh said.