Post Covid Only One Thing Is Certain, Business Will Be Different

So much has changed over the past few months. Everyone’s daily routine is flipped upside down and businesses are trying to navigate an accelerating shift toward the digital environments that allow us to stay connected. Powell & Edwards own approach toward our digital offerings detail how we started to adapt as a firm even before quarantine, but also how the legal landscape in Georgia is approaching new ideas.

Getting ahead of a trend, however, is not the same as facing a shift in how your client base increasingly accesses your services. Forbes offers a great article discussing this very idea. Even from as far back as March, it is exciting to see how some of the changes P&E made in the face of the pandemic are already panning out industry-wide and allowing us as a firm to provide better care to our clients without needing to meet in a closed, face to face environment.

Foremost of these is client access. Digital hearings and trials allow courts to continue in session without the extended seven-month delay Georgia recently witnessed. Even outside of a pandemic, judgments can be handed out considerably quicker in a manner that is only a benefit to everyone involved.

The overall industry-wide impact of this is deeper than remote hearings and distanced consultations. Law school courses will become more affordable in the long run, allowing talented would-be attorneys the opportunity to not rely on the corporate jobs to pay back loans while having them forge community bonds within their localized practice. Attorneys gain new ways to deliver documents directly to a client. Communities throughout rural Georgia will begin to see greatly improved access to an attorney, as well as other professional services such as doctors and teachers through telemedicine and virtual classrooms.

This approach is how P&E looks at our practice; from the students who clerk and intern with us to our attorneys and support staff, our focus is providing personalized representation with the determined advocacy our clients deserve. Watching these trends shift the landscape into something we are already familiar with is a wonderful feeling, and it is what keeps our firm going even after 90 years of service.