Attorney Lawrence Garbuz was diagnosed on March 6 with the coronavirus, one of New York's first confirmed cases. The diagnosis, he said, came after he wrapped up a large estate litigation case as a co-founder of estate planning and elder law boutique Lewis and Garbuz in Manhattan.

He spent three weeks in a medically induced coma. While he's out of the hospital now and back at his Westchester home, his recovery is ongoing, he said, and he's limited on how much work he can take on in his practice.

We spoke with Garbuz over the phone about his illness, managing a firm while recovering from it, and his own advice for stressed-out lawyers. "As lawyers, we've failed to appreciate the fact that being a good lawyer means being good to yourself," he said.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

What was happening in your practice around the time you got sick?

We had just settled a massive, half-billion-dollar estate litigation case, one of those matters with constant court appearances and nearly 20 opposing counsel.

I felt a cough, which wasn't crazy, and I thought it was allergies. It didn't go away, and I was about to make a doctor's appointment, but [during] the night I developed a fever and started to put two and two together.

The doctor listened to my lungs, told me he didn't like how they sounded and sent me straight to the emergency room. When I was there, I verified my name and date of birth, and that's the last thing I remember for three weeks.

I was in a first hospital for five days because they put me in a coma; the infectious disease person had no idea what I had. I was then moved to a different hospital, and someone there decided to test me for COVID-19, which came back positive. Then, I stayed in a medically induced coma for another two weeks.

What was your treatment and recovery like? How are you feeling now?

The whole world shut down when I was asleep. I didn't know of anything until I woke up, and my family had one heck of a story to tell, in terms of everything that happened. I had a pretty good sense of who I was, and it took a bit longer to get reoriented to how much time had passed. But when my family broke it to me that everything shut down, economies are halted and trade and courts are closed … had you told me this a few weeks earlier, I never would have believed it.

When I was in a coma, I developed necrosis in my leg, which is still being treated. I use a cane now. I benefit from a great team of doctors, and I'm trying to deal with the pain and numbness while they help me regain a full range of motion. It's intense, intense pain. On a scale of 10, it's at a 7, 8, or 9, and something I deal with every hour of every day.

All of the opposing counsel from the large matter that settled right as I got sick reached out, wished me a speedy recovery and offered to help. That was the common theme. I'm very fortunate that so many people reached out to me offering good wishes after reading about what happened. There is civility in our practice: when one member of the bar gets sick, everyone steps up and offers good wishes and assistance.

As you continue to recover from COVID-19, what does your practice as well as leading your firm look like?

When I tested positive, my whole team needed to be tested to make sure they were OK. Everyone was fine, but in an abundance of caution, everyone quarantined for 14 days. Thankfully, nothing developed and everyone was well.

Many years ago, we moved to a paperless office and developed a plan, probably around the time of Superstorm Sandy, to give everyone the ability to continue to work in the event we couldn't access the office. Everyone had all files available to them during the period when they couldn't leave their homes. So the stay-at-home order in 2020 didn't really affect the team. Although had courts not closed, individuals probably would have handled court appearances for me.

In light of everything that happened to me, my recovery is significantly limiting me in terms of what I can do at work. To be perfectly candid, my medical team made it clear that I have to focus on my recovery, even so many weeks after my hospital stay.

What's happened is that I'm now in a position to start answering some questions, and the people working from home can look at a whole file before reaching out to me. It's sort of like you have two hours in the early part of the day to ask me a question, and then I need to focus on rest and recovery.

How has this experience shaped your view of having a career and practicing law?

Lawyers in particular rush to do everything for the benefit of everyone in the room but not for ourselves. I view it as when you're on a plane they tell you that you should put on your own oxygen mask before helping others. As lawyers, we've failed to appreciate the fact that being a good lawyer means being good to yourself. Whether that's taking time to have lunch—not at your desk but while sitting at a park—or turning your phone off at night to play Connect 4 with your kids, that makes you a better person and a better professional.

We are all more tired than we realize, so it's important to do these things in order to fully recharge our batteries. I'm a religious person, and I believe God is telling us through coronavirus—everyone, let's slow down a little bit. Do what you need to do, but maybe at different speeds.