When 2020 began, the halls of the New Jersey Law Center were echoing with the sound of laughter, applause and the joyful voices of the Newark Boys Chorus at the New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA) Diversity Committee's New Year's reception. A few weeks later, nearly 600 legal professionals packed the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick for the NJSBA Family Law Symposium.

Then, less than three months into 2020, the world changed.

COVID-19 struck, creating a global pandemic and altering daily life and the practice of law. In mid-March, Governor Phil Murphy ordered the state on lockdown. Large groups standing shoulder-to-shoulder, let alone an attorney meeting face-to-face with a client or a judge presiding over a case in a packed courtroom, would have to be suspended.