The Barber Law Firm Shifts to Virtual Consultations and Client Meetings to Ensure Safety

The Barber Law Firm, based in Dallas, TX, has announced that they are working on new ways to help their clients stay safe from the pandemic by switching to virtual consultations and client meetings. The firm that centers around personal injury cases has been serious enough in protecting staff and clients that they decided to remain closed to the public except for critical depositions or appointments. Dallas residents who need to discuss a recent injury with the team at the law firm may schedule a quick and easy virtual session as a number of video conferencing alternatives are available.

Daniel James, a spokesperson for the firm, says, “The Barber Law Firm committed to the safety of our clients and employees. We are offering new ways of conducting virtual legal sessions and are having great success with these. We are thankful for our community which is helping us keep each other safe during uncertain times. No matter the situation, we are continuing to fight hard for injury victims as many need help getting the settlements they are entitled to even more so in difficult times.”

Although current technology for virtual meetings as used in the legal industry has been around for several years, the pandemic has greatly accelerated adoption by law firms like the The Barber Law Firm. According to one member of an extended team who works on the firm's IT needs, "We had to pivot from having minimal video conferencing capabilities to a full rollout of onsite and offsite conferencing as well as quickly accommodating the need for some of the team to also work from home as well as remotely conference, sometimes on mobile devices and in situations where they couldn't be at home or at the office. We've had to be flexible and agile but people are starting to get the hang of it and now these capabilities are becoming the new norm. I think we'll get used to working this way and at least partly continue even after the pandemic is past. Without the crisis, it would have taken years to get to the same point assuming we ever did at all."

The push to adopt stronger technical capabilities to adapt to the current environment has meant employees at companies get used to screen sharing, virtual backgrounds, shifts in meeting dynamics and how presentations are made. But firms like The Barber Law Firm which also communicate regularly with clients are also finding the need to help people outside the organization make use of technology. Now firms like these can extend this ability to important legal meetings such as depositions and expert witness testimonies.

Official legal meetings like these have much more intensive requirements than a simple Zoom or Skype video call. As noted by an article from the American Bar Association, there are purpose-built platforms that encrypt and store real-time transcripts and video clips of proceedings. They can also time and keyword index as well as annotate footage for search capabilities.

Some of the special considerations for conducting meetings in the legal industry may not have been apparent until the current conditions began forcing changes. For example, as noted by TheReceptionist, a company that specializes in developing technology for managing client visits and interactions, using traditional technology for legal meetings can pose serious concerns. They state for example, "In the past, remote meeting needs have been served by phone conferencing without video. But audio-only calls have a few security flaws. For example, you can’t see who has beeped in to any given group conference call? You also don’t know whether the person you’re conversing with is discussing confidential matters from a coffee shop or a crowded train. And there’s the infamous mute button: we’ve all heard of an instance where someone thought they were on mute but they really weren’t. Yikes!"

The challenges to providing legal services with little to no face to face meetings will likely continue to reveal themselves. For now, as stated by the aforementioned IT provider, "The Barber Law Firm will keep pushing the envelope of what's possible in the personal injury law field during the pandemic."