ABA Section of Business Law
ABA Section of Business Law
Business Law Today
November/December 1998
Telecommuting: It's a tossup
Practicing law at home can be good and not so good
By KATHRYN TONGUETongue is a free-lance writer in Chicago.
It was business as usual for Davis Wright Tremaine corporate transaction lawyer Milton Stewart. The Portland, Ore., lawyer was closing a joint venture in the spring of 1996, and his client was in New York City. The other party was in Taiwan with counsel in San Francisco. Stewart's secretary was in his office in downtown Portland.
And Stewart was nestled in his coastal home in Gearhart, Ore., looking out at a beautiful 20-mile stretch of beach and listening to the lull of the Pacific ocean.
"With good technology, your office can be anywhere you want it to be," Stewart said, who has equipped his pastoral beach home with all of the high-powered tools necessary to enable him to spend about 30 days a year working from the beach instead of from his Portland office. "We successfully closed that deal entirely by phone, fax and modem with me at my beach home and the other parties scattered around the globe."
Stewart is just one of many lawyers nationwide who is tapping into today's expansive new technology and, in the process, redefining the concept of the conventional four-walled office by experimenting with "telecommuting." Telecommuting, which simply involves using phones, computers and related equipment to work outside the traditional office space, is allowing lawyers to bring their offices anywhere their cell phones and laptop computers can go, including hotels, home offices, airports and the sidelines at children's soccer practices.
According to a May 1997 survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than half of the nearly 900,000 lawyers and judges at work at the time of the survey performed at least some work from home. Many of these lawyers use telecommuting as a means of avoiding late nights or weekends at the office. Others telecommute so they can spend one or two days a week away from their conventional offices. Some even work full time from "virtual offices" in their homes to reduce overhead costs, cut down on commute times or increase the flexibility of their schedules.
"There are several factors behind the increasing popularity of telecommuting," said Gail Martin, executive director of the International Telework Association and Council, a nonprofit organization that estimates that 11.1 million Americans worked as telecommuters in 1997. "The biggest factor for telecommuting's growing popularity is certainly the new technology available. As we enter the information age, where and how we live and work is changing drastically."
Deborah Hayes is one lawyer who is using the power of technology to challenge the importance of geography and to allow her to decide where she lives rather than to let her work dictate where she must live. Hayes serves as corporate counsel for Willis Corroon Corp., an international insurance brokerage and financial services corporation with U.S. headquarters in Nashville, Tenn. Hayes works full time for the company, but her office isn't in Nashville — it's on the ground floor of her family's home 500 miles from Nashville.
In 1997, just one year after joining Willis Corroon, Hayes' husband accepted a full-time faculty position at a small liberal arts college in the distant location. At first, Hayes and her husband tried maintaining two different households, but after determining that it was not a feasible option, Hayes told Willis Corroon that she was going to have to leave. The possibility of telecommuting arose, and Hayes decided to try it. One year later, she is still logging onto her computer every morning to make the 500-mile electronic commute.
"It was a question of balancing my priorities," said Hayes, who has a 6-year-old son. "Telecommuting has allowed me to keep a job that I like and to hold my family together. Technology has gone a long way toward letting me do at home just about everything I could do if I was sitting in an office in Nashville."
On a typical day, Hayes sends her son off to school at about 8 a.m. and is then free to work uninterrupted until he gets home around 4. She relies on her computer, fax, modem and phone to communicate with co-workers and clients in Nashville, London and New York throughout the day. She uses remote access software to link to files on the corporation's main computer system, and instead of walking down the hall to bounce ideas off her colleagues, she simply pops off an e-mail or picks up the phone. "I consider myself to be very fortunate to have the opportunity to be doing this," Hayes said. "I wish more people understood that the reality of the legal profession today is that both men and women have to become more willing to allow their lives outside their practice to play a more appropriate role in determining their work load and situation."
Although Hayes is thrilled with how her smoothly her telecommuting experience has gone so far, she warns that telecommuting does have its drawbacks. It's easy to feel isolated unless you make a concerted effort to stay in the loop, she said. Also, it can be difficult to accept the fact that telecommuting often involves stepping down a notch at work.
"There is a status level associated with telecommuting," Hayes said. "When you enter into a full-time alternative work arrangement, you really do step off the fast track. For me, that was an adjustment because I was always first in line to do the hard deals and to work with the hard clients."
Setting up a home office While each individual telecommuter's equipment needs will vary based on the amount of time spent telecommuting and the type of law practiced, the following is a list of equipment that prospective telecommuters might consider when setting up a home office:
— Kathryn Tongue
Securities lawyer Nancy Fallon-Houle also has discovered that telecommuting does carry some negative connotations.
"There are people who have the misperception that people who work from home can't possibly be working," said Fallon-Houle, a full-time telecommuter whose home office in Downers Grove, Ill., includes six phone lines, two computers (each with modem and printer), a fax machine, a securities law library on CD-ROM and a basement file room. "They misperceive because they don't see how they could work a full day, every day, from home without watching TV or attacking the household job jar."
In 1993-94, after eight years of practicing law in downtown Chicago with Katten Muchin & Zavis, Fallon-Houle gradually switched from train commuting an hour each way to work to telecommuting a minute each way from her suburban home. She found working at home to be a parent's dream come true. She was able to see her children off to school in the morning, greet them as they come home, have dinner with them in the evening and put them to bed at night. And in between all those events, she was able to work 10- to 12-hour days.
Yet Fallon-Houle says her telecommuting situation was not ideal.
"It was an uphill battle trying to make people understand that I was working at home just as hard as, if not harder than, those attorneys who were putting in face time downtown," said Fallon-Houle, who left Katten Muchin & Zavis in April 1998, partly because she felt the firm was undercompensating her for the volume, quality and complexity of work she was doing from home. Fallon-Houle warns others that telecommuting is still a rather new concept and that law firms must have a number of senior lawyers who are technologically enlightened and supportive of the idea in order for it to work successfully.
Today, Fallon-Houle continues to work full time from her home office; however, now she has started her own securities law practice, hired her own full-time secretary and has her own clients. For Fallon-Houle, working at home offers the flexibility she needs in order to balance her family life with the demands of her work.
"I can work a long day from home, give clients great service because I'm always available, bill plenty of hours, and still spend time with my family and perform volunteer work," she said. Fallon-Houle has a daughter in high school and a son in the fourth grade. "I can stop work at the important moments when my family needs me in the evening for dinner or when the kids get home from school, and then I can go back to work without having to drive back downtown."
Fallon-Houle cautions, however, that working from home is not a solution to the child care dilemma for parents of young children. "Many aspiring telecommuters have the perception that you can concurrently work at home and babysit your young children," Fallon-Houle said. "That is not true."
When Fallon-Houle's children were younger, she had them in day care and in school from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. so she could work undisturbed. Now, however, her kids are old enough to look after themselves, and they know not to barge into her office while she is working. In fact, her 9-year-old son faxes his mom notes from his computer upstairs to avoid interrupting with questions like: "Dear Mom: "Can you help me study math tonight at 7 p.m.?"
"I wouldn't trade for anything in the world the ability to be at home close to my kids at those few critical, yet fleeting, moments in each day when a teen-ager or pre-teen-ager decides she or he is actually going to talk to a parent," Fallon-Houle said. "And I wouldn't trade for anything in the world the ability to keep a round-the-clock finger on the pulse of my law practice that I love as much as I love my kids."
Although telecommuting has improved the flexibility and the quality of life that many lawyers such as Fallon-Houle enjoy, a serious price tag can accompany the decision to merge work life with home life.
"My day is as long as a piece of string," laughed securities lawyer John Mericle, who telecommutes full time from his Edmonds, Wash., home for the Seattle firm Harris, Mericle, Wakayama & Mason. "The one big drawback of telecommuting is that you're always at work because your office is your home."
The upshot of this, Mericle said, is that clients generally receive better service because he lives at work. "I can actually give a faster response to my clients and to other lawyers by telecommuting because I truly live at the office," Mericle said.
Stewart, the man by the Oregon shore, who has an office in his home in Portland in addition to the office at his beach home, says that telecommuting also has allowed him to enhance client service.
"The ability to be a mobile worker and to be accessible wherever I am, whether I am at the beach, at home in Portland or on the road, makes me a better lawyer for my clients," said Stewart, a self-proclaimed "road warrior," who takes his laptop and cell phone with him on his business trips across the country.
Stewart officially became hooked on the merits of being a mobile worker in December 1992. On the morning that he was scheduled to close the sale of a corporation, he woke up to 12 inches of snow on the ground over a sheet of ice. He lives on one of the steepest hills in Portland, and he was forced to call his client to tell him that there was no way he could get into the office.
However, instead of postponing the sale of his client's corporation, Stewart logged onto his home computer, fired up his fax and was ready to get down to business.
"We were able to close that transaction from our respective homes using our computers, faxes, e-mail, telephones and voice mail," Stewart said. "That was sort of my epiphany for realizing that I could really do outside the office much if not all of what I do in the office. I saw how technology really could widen my ability to serve my clients."
In addition to enhancing client service, many lawyers and firms are finding that telecommuting can serve as a means of enhancing their own bottom line as well.
According to John Beavers, managing partner of Bricker & Eckler in Columbus, Ohio, his firm has benefited financially from its decision to offer its lawyers remote computer access to all of the firm's resources. Since beginning to promote remote access practices and telecommuting in 1991, Beavers says the firm has saved in terms of clerical costs, photocopying expenses and occupancy expenses. The firm, which currently has five full-time telecommuters, also has been able to reduce its lawyer turnover rates by offering telecommuting as an alternative work option.
"We wanted to give lawyers access to all of the firm's resources anytime, anywhere," said Beavers, whose firm uses the remote access software program "PC Anywhere" to allow lawyers to log into the firm's computer network regardless of their location. "As a result, the quality of life for our lawyers has benefited and the coffers of the firm have benefited."
Gary Ravitz, a civil and criminal trial lawyer who works full time from his home in Chicago, also has benefited from the savings telecommuting can offer.
"I worked downtown in solo practice for 10 or 11 years, and one day, the light bulb went on and I realized how much rent could be saved if I worked out of my house instead of maintaining office space downtown." Ravitz began working solo from his home in 1996.
Today, Ravitz has a partner, Eric Palles. Yet the two lawyers don't work in the same office each day. They work out of their respective homes, and they run their firm, Ravitz & Palles, by telecommuting with each other via e-mail, phone and fax. Instead of sharing a law library full of books, they find research materials and cases on the Internet and Lexis-Nexis. Instead of hiring a secretarial staff, they word process their own documents and use computerized scheduling and billing programs. In essence, they operate a virtual law firm out of their virtual home offices.
"As a business proposition, it's clearly more economical for us to operate out of our own homes," said Ravitz, who spent about $10,000 in start-up fees to purchase furniture, lighting, technological equipment and other resources for his home office. "For our clients, working from home allows us to charge lower rates. The overall savings for everyone are enormous."
Given the fact that many lawyers are enjoying increased profits, enhanced client service, greater productivity levels and more flexibility as a result of telecommuting, will telecommuting become the wave of the future? Will conventional law offices with their spacious lobbies and airy conference rooms become a relic of the past?
Gil Gordon, a telecommuting consultant based in Monmouth Junction, N.J., says no.
"Law firms today want to be seen as with-it organizations and want to shed the image of being stodgy and having walnut-paneled offices," Gordon said. "Moving toward telecommuting is a step in that direction, but law firms' need for a physical presence probably won't ever go away. Some things still need to be done face to face. The challenge will be to find the right mixture."
Another major reason why Gordon believes telecommuting will not bring about an end to the traditional law office is that not all workers are suited to telecommuting.
"Some people need structure and routine and all the trappings of an office to work effectively," he said. "Some people don't have a suitable work area at home or have young kids running around home. Telecommuting cannot and should not be applied to all types of personalities and workers."
In addition to individual work habits, several regulatory matters, such as local zoning ordinances and bar admission requirements, should be taken into consideration before making the decision to telecommute. For example, lawyers who work outside the state where their firm is located may be required to become admitted to the bars of the states from which they telecommute if the relevant state bar examiners deem the telecommuter to be practicing law in their jurisdiction.
Need face-to-face interaction with clients and colleagues? The frequency with which a lawyer must meet with others also should be taken into consideration when deciding whether or not to telecommute, according to Patricia Meador, who telecommuted for three years from her home in Chapel Hill, N.C., for the Nashville, Tenn., firm Bass, Berry & Sims. Meador, a health-care lawyer, began telecommuting in 1995 when her family moved from Nashville to North Carolina after her husband accepted a faculty position at Duke University.
Meador was extremely grateful that telecommuting allowed her to continue working for the firm and to maintain the relationships she had formed with clients and colleagues during her 10 years in Nashville. However, as a mother of three, she found telecommuting to be difficult since her practice necessitated that she travel to Nashville at least two days a week to meet with clients and partners and to fulfill administrative responsibilities within the firm.
"Telecommuting was a very positive experience for me, and I think it is definitely workable in today's environment," Meador said. She recently made what she calls the "very difficult decision" to stop telecommuting in order join a firm located just a few minutes from her home. "If you have a job that you enjoy, I'd encourage people to work out a model of telecommuting for a period of time to test its feasiblity."
Although individual work habits and personalities, regulatory requirements, the type of law practice involved and the availability of a suitable work area are all factors that must be taken into consideration when deciding whether or not to telecommute, perhaps the most crucial factor necessary to make a telecommuting situation a success involves investing in high-tech, high-powered technological tools.
According to Enid Livingston, who runs a solo practice out of her suburban home near Detroit, technology has been key to creating her successful home office arrangement. Livingston poured through computer magazines while researching what types of equipment to buy before eventually shelling out approximately $5,000 to equip her home office with a computer, start-up software, a printer and a scanner.
"Getting the equipment was not the only thing to do, but then I had to learn how to use it," Livingston laughed. "I'm getting pretty comfortable with the technology now, but I am learning more all the time."
While a basic comfort level with technology is a plus for any telecommuter, telecommuting is possible even for lawyers who can barely manage to hunt and peck their way across a keyboard. For example, when Stewart began telecommuting from his Oregon beach home, he says that many people assumed he was a "computer nerd." In fact, however, he admits that he has trouble word processing and typing.
"I think it's a real challenge for my generation and older — who didn't grow up with technology — to understand it," said Stewart, who is 52. "The older lawyer really has to commit to training and to learning how to use technology and how to use its benefits."
For Stewart, who is able to gaze at the whales or smell the sea air during his long weekends at the beach, the benefits of learning how to use technology clearly are great.
"In this competitive environment, we need to give lawyers the tools to have a life," he said. "Clients are ever more demanding and it's a client-driven environment. For me, the telecommuting tools allow me to have the best of both worlds, including high client service and a high quality of life."
For those who are technologically challenged, the above list of telecommuting tools may seem absolutely overwhelming. However, a number of resources are available to assist prospective telecommuters who are trying to determine their technology needs. The ABA Law Practice Management Section's "Telecommuting for Lawyers," written by Nicole Belson Goluboff, offers concrete pointers on how firms and individual lawyers can get started with telecommuting, as well as tips on choosing the appropriate technological tools. In addition, the book offers firms advice on how to develop telecommuting policies and programs. It can be ordered from the ABA Service Center at 1-800-285-2221.
