When the Pandemic hit the United States, most states mandated some version of stay-at-home-orders. For many law firms, this meant transferring your practice to Remote status before Covid-19 had taken a firm hold in your community. Initially, law firms were confronted with the challenges of taking their firms remotely, remaining operational, and managing their staff remotely. In that context, law firms did not need to address Covid-19 workplace safety or how to respond to potential Covid-19 outbreaks within a firm. However, as more and more businesses consider reopening, it is important to remember that Covid-19 is alive and well and still spreading across much of our country.
Law Firm owners contemplating reopening, must do so carefully, and with intentional forethought. I suggest thinking about this issue in terms of 4 P’s: Place, People, Plan, and Process. Of course, you want to take all reasonable steps to ensure your workplace is as safe as you can realistically make it, and that you are keeping people as safe as you realistically can. Also, you will need a Process for screening your employees and handling employees who report possible symptoms or test positive for Covid-19. You will need a Plan for tracing/protecting the rest of your employees if one employee has contracted Covid-19 or exhibits signs or symptoms.
Claim your Free Law Firm Growth Strategy Session
Claim your Free Law Firm Growth Strategy Session
Law firm owners, as any business owners, may be exposed to potential liability for failing to protect their employees from coronavirus exposure. Although each state’s workers’ compensation laws may limit these claims, there are some exceptions to workers’ compensation exclusivity. Private employers may still be potentially liable under OSHA’s “general duty” clause; to provide a place of employment free from recognized hazards. You will need to look at your state’s laws to understand your potential exposure to claims. Best practices to protect yourself and your employees will be to follow your individual state’s reopening guidelines, if available, and to review OSHA and CDC Guidelines for Business Reopening. I encourage you to download OSHA’s 32-page Booklet: “Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for Covid-19” ( www.osha.gov) as well as the CDC’s excellent online guidebook, “Resuming Business Toolkit. Coronavirus Disease 2019,” (www.cdc.gov ).
Modify Your Office Environment to Decrease the Risks of Spreading Covid-19:
Claim your Free Law Firm Strategy Session
Claim your Free Law Firm Strategy Session
By now, we are all aware of the importance of Social Distancing, frequent hand washing/ sanitizing, and wearing protective face masks as the primary means of slowing the spread and decreasing the risks of contracting Covid-19. You will need to implement multiple workplace measures that take these principles into account in order to keep your employees safe and minimize the risk of a Coronavirus outbreak in your firm.
Education is Critical: Make sure each employee understands how they can keep themselves safe at the office, and explain your expectations, and new protocols clearly.
Here are some suggestions:
Office Cleaning: Thoroughly clean and sanitize your office before resuming normal operating status. Make sure special attention is given to high-touch areas and surfaces such as break rooms, time clocks, kitchens, microwaves, water coolers, shared printers and copiers, conference rooms, lounge areas, and restrooms.
Individual Hand Sanitizer: Ensure all employees have access to hand sanitizer. If possible, provide sanitizer for each employee to keep at their desk as well as disinfectant wipes, cleaners, or sprays. Require employees to disinfect their workspaces each day.
Sanitizers Placed Throughout Office: Place additional hand sanitizer throughout the office, including high traffic areas: near the copier, mail station, outside of the restrooms, lunchroom, and in all common areas as well as at the front desk.
Visible Safety Signs: Post signs throughout your office reminding employees how to keep themselves safe by washing their hands, avoiding touching their faces, eyes, nose, and mouth, maintaining 6 feet of social distancing, wearing masks, and reporting potential symptoms to management. The CDC has a great ready-made poster in their Toolkit (cdc.gov/coronavirus) you can download.
Social Distancing Office Spaces: Reconfigure office space to allow for 6 feet of social distancing is possible.
Conference Rooms: Consider eliminating, repurposing, or restricting areas such as conference rooms and lounge areas. You can turn conference rooms into workstations for employees to assist with social distancing office spacings and decrease the likelihood of in-person group gatherings where social distancing could be compromised.
Partitions: Arrange partitions as a barrier shield if employees do not already have their own offices or cubicles.
Floor Markings: Consider installing floor tape throughout the office to guide employees in maintaining at least 6 feet of social distancing.
Purchase Additional Frequently Used Items: Consider purchasing additional equipment such as copiers, microwaves, or other frequently used items to decrease employee traffic and communal use/contamination risks.
Individual Equipment: Encourage employees to use their own pens/pencils in common areas and avoid using other people’s phones, desks, offices, work tools, or equipment when possible.
Lunch: Encourage employees to eat lunch at their desks to avoid groups gathering in the kitchen or lounge areas. Staggering employee lunchtimes will also help decrease kitchen traffic.
Breaks: Stagger employee break times and consider limiting the number of people gathering during these times to small groups, with social distancing maintained.
Ventilation Systems: Evaluate office ventilation systems to determine if the ventilation system can be modified to increase ventilation rates or the percentage of outdoor air that circulates into the system.
Air Cleaners: Outfit areas with air cleaners with HEPA filters, etc. Portable air cleaners can be placed in individual offices, elevators, conference rooms, kitchens, etc. If using them in an open-plan office, consult a building engineer for advice on placement since air cleaners also emit exhaust and, if poorly placed, could make matters worse- by spreading the virus to others.
DCV: Disable demand-controlled ventilation (DCV)
Use Zoom Conferencing: Avoid or limit in-person group meetings and opt for Zoom and audio conferencing for firm meetings, so employees can remain at their desks and still communicate in groups when needed.
Shifts & Remote Work: Stagger employees’ work schedules, allowing them to come into the office in shifts, and work remotely at other times or allow employees to continue to work full time remotely. With schools and daycares not yet opening back up, a number of your employees may need to continue working remotely anyway. The fewer people you have working in your office at one time, the safer it is for everyone.
Communication with Social Distancing: Require employees to maintain 6 feet of social distancing as much as possible, and communicate with co-workers at that distance, or by phone, Zoom, Slack or other interoffice messaging systems, etc. rather than in group settings.
Face Masks: Set a firm policy on the use of Face Coverings. Best Practices would include requiring all employees to wear masks whenever they leave their desks, or even at their desks if they must work near others and do not have their own office/cubicle. Provide face masks or face covering for all employees who do not already have them.
Elevators: Limit elevator use to 2 people at a time.
Doorways/Hallways: Designate specific doorways as “entry only” and “exit only.” Designate traffic patterns for hallways.
Increase Office Cleaning: Increase your office cleaning schedule, to include daily after-hours cleaning with disinfectant. Make sure special attention is given to high-touch areas and surfaces such as break rooms, time clocks, kitchens, microwaves, water coolers, shared printers and copiers, conference rooms, lounge areas, and restrooms.
Employees Only: Consider prohibiting non-essential visitors from entering the office, such as employees’ friends and family, including children.
Policies & Protocol For Symptom Screening and Response To Potential or Confirmed Covid-19 in Your Office:
As the law firm owner, you will need to put together a comprehensive plan for how you will go about screening your employees for Covid-19 symptoms and how you will respond if they have suspected or confirmed Coronavirus. Sending them home is the first thing to do, but you will need to determine how long they should stay home, and under what circumstances they should return to the office. It will be your responsibility to close down portions of your office space that are potentially contaminated and determine which additional employees have been in close contact and possibly exposed or infected.
The CDC gives suggested guidelines, but they are evolving as more is known about the virus, so you will need to stay abreast of these changes and respond accordingly. You will also need to make sure you are up to date on your own state’s guidelines for responding to potential Covid-19 in the workplace.
COVID-19 Office Coordinator: Start by designating a Covid-19 Coordinator who can stay abreast of CDC, OSHA, and state Guidelines. Monitor employee compliance with your protocols and screenings, track employee absences and contact them if they need to report any potential symptoms or Covid-19 diagnosis confidently.
Know the Symptoms: Educate Your Employees on the Currently Identified Coronavirus Symptoms and post listings of these symptoms prominently in your office. These symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus. Symptoms include:
- Fever or chills
- Cough
- Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
- Muscle or body aches
- Headache
- New loss of taste or smell
- Sore throat
- Congestion or runny nose
- Nausea or vomiting
- Diarrhea
Daily Symptom Screening of All Employees: You will need to create a clear PLAN for HOW you will conduct a DAILY Symptom Assessment for each employee such as, 1) Creating a form that lists the symptoms and asking each employee to check any that they are experiencing and to confirm that they are not experiencing any of these symptoms prior to entering the office each day, or 2) Having them sign a statement acknowledging that they have been educated on each of these symptoms and affirm that they will contact the Office Covid-19 Coordinator before coming to work each day if they are experiencing any of these symptoms. It is a good plan to have all employees sign a form indicating they have been apprised of your firm’s protocols and agree to follow them.
Duty to Report Exposure: Employees should also report if, 1) anyone else in their household has Covid-19 or any Covid-19 symptoms, 2) if they have been in close contact with someone who has been diagnosed with Covid-19 or suspected Covid-19.
Daily Temperature Checks: Conduct daily temperature checks on all employees EACH day with a contact-free thermometer.
If an Employee has Any COVID-19 Symptoms, Send Them Home: You must decide on your firm’s plan of action. CDC suggestions are that they are sent home and remain at home for ten days. They should be fever-free for at least three days, without the use of fever-reducing medications before returning to work. If they feel capable and wish to do so, they can continue to work remotely.
Employees with Outside Exposure Should Be Sent Home: An abundance of caution would include sending anyone home who reports that someone in their household is exhibiting symptoms or has confirmed Covid-19 or if they have been in close contact with someone who has Covid-19 or suspected Covid-19. If they capable and wish to do so, they can continue to work remotely.
Cleaning the Workplace: If you have sent someone home due to Covid symptoms, diagnosis, or potential contact, you should wait 24 hours before cleaning and sanitizing that employee’s workstation and areas where they frequented. You may wish to send everyone home for several days, to work remotely while the entire office is thoroughly cleaned and sanitized once the 24-hour period has passed. ‘
Determine Exposure To Other Employees & Send Those Employees Home For 2 Weeks: You will need to determine who else in your office may have been exposed to or come in close contact with the sick employee and send them home as well, for approximately two weeks. (Since it can take as much as two weeks after exposure before exhibiting symptoms of Covid-19.) Close contact is defined as less than 6 feet and for longer than 15 minutes. All these employees should be able to continue to work remotely until you authorize their return to the office.
Confidentiality: Remember, you MUST keep the identity of the sick employee(s) CONFIDENTIAL, even if they are found to be Covid-19 positive.
High-Risk Employees: Employees who are at higher risk, such as those with autoimmune diseases, diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure, etc. should be encouraged to continue working remotely during the Pandemic.
Option to Work Remotely: Consider sending a firm-wide email alerting all employees if someone has suspected or confirmed Covid-19 and allowing all who wish to do so to work remotely for the next several weeks.
Client Protocols to Decrease Risks During Covid-19:
The easiest way to approach client contact during this Pandemic is to avoid it altogether. Since you have already implemented policies to communicate and correspond with clients remotely, the safest course of action is to continue these practices. Many law firms have successfully implemented virtual communication methods such as Zoom and Facetime for client conferences and used mail and software such as DocuSign for electronic signatures. Given the risks to your employees, it is wise to continue to avoid having clients in the office if and to the extent you can reasonably do so.
However, if it is necessary to have clients coming into the office, safe practices include:
By Appointment Only and Screening Notification: Make sure all clients understand that they must set up an appointment before coming into the office during the Pandemic. Contact clients in advance to set up specific appointment times for them to come into your office when necessary. Conduct a screening over the phone to confirm they are not exhibiting any Covid-19 symptoms, and to determine if they have tested positive for Covid-19. Determine if they have been exposed, via close contact to anyone with the virus, or if they are living with anyone with suspected or confirmed Covid-19. Ensure they know that they will need to wear a face mask and undergo a contactless temperature screening before entering the building.
Face Masks: Require all clients who come to your office to wear a face mask at all times that they are in your building. Provide masks or other face-covering to clients that do not have them.
Temperature Screening: Conduct a contactless temperature screening on all clients before entering the building.
Front Desk: Configure your front desk area to ensure social distancing is maintained or install a clear barrier shield that minimizes exposure.
No Communal Writing Instruments: If signatures need to be obtained, make sure you have a container of firm pens at the front desk and give them to the client to keep after they have finished signing.
Text Upon Arrival and Wait in Car: Clients should call or text when they arrive and wait in their car until you are ready to meet them at the front of the office, for their temperature screening and to ensure they are wearing a mask.
One Appointment at a Time: To avoid having multiple clients in your office at the same time, coordinate all client appointments, firm-wide.
Controlled Contact – One Room Only: Determine where you will meet with clients to minimize exposure and maintain social distancing. Ideally, meet them in an area that does not require them to walk through the office, and make sure that the area is wiped down and sprayed with disinfectant after each client appointment.
Hopefully, this list of Best Practices will help you put together your firm’s specific Reopening Plan. But remember, as the virus continues to spread, and as we learn more about how it spreads, you will need to revisit the CDC, OSHA, and your state’s websites for amended guidelines. Given the complexities and burdens of maintaining a safe office environment during this Pandemic, a cost/benefit assessment may result in more firms opting to continue remote status or a partial reopening in the months to come. Reopening your law firm safely during Covid-19 is challenging and requires concerted effort and careful planning. ◆
