Page 23 - BusinessWest November 10, 2021

TBy George O’Brien
hey call it the ‘Zoom room.’ And for obvious reasons.
It’s the office of a retired partner with the Springfield-based law firm Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin that’s been converted into a small con-
ference room equipped with a 60-inch screen for, or mostly for, Zoom meetings with clients that involve at least a few of the firm’s attorneys.
“If we have several of us who want to meet with a client or a couple of clients, we can have a multi-person meeting and have a few people in the room,” said Tim Mulhern, the firm’s managing partner, who said that, prior to the pan- demic, there was obviously no need for a Zoom room. And the creation of one is just one of the many adjustments — that’s a word he and others we spoke with would use early and often — that law firms have made over the past 20
or so months. And some of them are more permanent in nature than temporary.
That can likely be said of the receptionist at Shatz — or the lack thereof, to be more precise. No one sits at that desk any longer, and, in fact, the door that leads to the reception
Tim Mulhern in the ‘Zoom room’ at Shatz, Schwartz & Fentin.
Law
A Changing Dynamic
Law Firms Adjust to New Landscape Shaped by the Pandemic
Like all businesses, law firms have had to make adjustments in the wake of the pandemic, which has created both new opportunities and new challenges. Overall, firms have seen obvious changes in where people work and how. But there also may be new dynamics when it comes to recruiting and from where firms can attract new business.
LAW
NOVEMBER 10, 2021 23
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