At this time last year, our City and our industry were on the brink. Emergency rooms were overflowing. Sirens, sickness and death seemed pervasive. Law offices and courts had suddenly shut. We were in quarantine—concerned and confused in a way nearly no one had ever been or imagined.

One year later, after untold suffering and loss for many and huge adaptations to living in a smaller and more closed way, life and the law go on—not the same, to be sure, but no longer seeming so strange either. Truth be told, those of us whose work entails filing papers with courts, making arguments to judges and engaging in the competitive sport of commercial litigation are mostly doing just fine, thank you. The fevered discussions of one year ago—could we really practice law virtually without offices and court rooms—have been resolved favorably. Remote practice has become the unquestioned norm. Except for jury trials, commercial courts have been functioning fully and quite smoothly. Law firm revenues not only rebounded but, in many cases, grew. The adaptability of the commercial legal environment has been something to behold—capitalist creative destruction with a quietly effective ferocity.

So where does that leave us, the lawyers who are privileged to make our living suing and defending businesses and the people who run them? As we open the hatches and crawl out into the emerging post-pandemic daylight, what are we going to find in lawyer-world and how are we going to feel about it? Can we seize this opportunity to not only restart but to correct the course of commercial law practice?