The study provides valuable insights into how lawyers at major law firms perceive the advantages and disadvantages of working from home, as well as the extent of their use of various videoconferencing platforms in their professional lives. Data is presented separately for use of Zoom, WebEx, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. In addition the report gives detailed data on the extent of interactions with clients and -- in a separate data set -- with coworkers -- that are conducted via videoconferencing rather than in person. Respondents also evaluate the direction their firms’ are going in terms of work from home and general videoconferencing use. The report's readers can benchmark their use of work from home, and general videoconferencing strategy, with a data set derived from major law firms, which are listed in an appendix. In addition, survey participants evaluate the impact of videoconferencing and work from home on their personal productivity, providing critical data and insights for law firms struggling with these issues and technologies.
More than 50 tables of data in the report are based on a survey of 248 lawyers exclusively from major law firms in the USA. Data is presented in the aggregate and also broken down by age, work title, gender, legal field or specialty, firm size and other variables. Just a few of this 60-page report's many findings are that:
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37.5% of respondents believed that they were as productive, while 33.47% believed that they were more productive and 24.6% less productive, when working from home, compared to working in the office.
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87.90% of respondents use Zoom in their professional lives, and lawyers specializing in Personal Injury/Tort and Regulatory/Healthcare law had a 100% usage rate, while White Collar defense lawyers had the lowest rate at 66.67%.
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Male respondents were more likely than female respondents to report that their firms were moving towards more work from home rather than less.
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For the entire sample, a mean of 80.74% of all interactions with clients and outside collaborators were conducted via videoconferencing rather than in-person.