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Law360 (April 17, 2020, 8:39 AM EDT) --
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| Abdus Samad Pardesi |
Today's perspective comes from Chicago-based Abdus Samad Pardesi, a partner in the government and internal investigations practice group at Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
What challenges has the pandemic created in your specific area of work?
As a white collar lawyer, my work involves — among other things — internal investigations, risk assessments and monitorships. This work is very dependent on meeting with people. There is a premium on collecting nuanced information and phone calls have their limits.
It's especially tricky when the people you are speaking with are abroad and English is not their native language. And if I'm supposed to assess someone's credibility (which I often do), it becomes even more challenging. A colleague of mine put it in helpful terms: A phone call is 25% as effective as meeting in-person and video is 50% as effective. But, that said, we try to make it work and I'm very grateful for the fact that I can work remotely.
One way that I've tried to address the challenge is by focusing — for the time being — on requesting and reviewing documents that might be relevant to my cases and making sure I'm prepared for in-person interviews and meetings when things hopefully return to normal. And while this isn't unique to my practice group, we, as lawyers, are often dependent on being able to meet in person to collaborate, review work product, and take calls together. But literally every job faces that, and I'm sure I'm not alone in realizing how much I took that for granted.
How are you and your family adapting at home?
It's going well overall. It's obviously a challenge, but kudos to my family. They've been wonderful. My wife is a teacher, so in addition to managing assignments and checking in on her students, she's been great at keeping our kids busy. We're also blessed that our kids happen to be 6-year-old twins, who can keep each other busy, and we only occasionally have to referee when they get into fights. I thought it was going to be a lot more difficult.
Don't get me wrong — there have been some challenges. The first day we were all working from home I was on my first call of the day and two minutes into the call, I hear the blender going off in the kitchen and it was painfully loud. I held an (in-person) family meeting shortly thereafter and tried to lay out some ground rules. Other than a few interruptions here and there, it's worked well ever since. But I give huge credit to my wife and kids for being so supportive and cooperative.
What is the most creative or productive response to the crisis you've witnessed so far?
On a lighter side, I quite enjoy the memes of parents trying to work from home while managing unruly kids.
On a more substantive level, the social and emotional check-ins have been a welcome addition from firms. When working from home, it can be easy to become a nameless body working in the trenches because no one can see you. But it has been nice to see that firms take an interest in the emotional well-being and ensure that people are staying sane and focused despite the crazy times we find ourselves in.
Second, the uptick in home workouts have been great — I've been a fan of them for a number of years, but I've definitely dug in further over the last several weeks. If I'm not commuting and not moving as much, I need to find some way to get some exercise. I try to mix it up but I've always been a fan of the "scientific" seven-minute workout (jumping jacks, planks, squats, push-ups, and more fun stuff).
The opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organization, its clients, or Portfolio Media Inc., or any of its or their respective affiliates. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal advice.
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