RBGG’s Managing Partner provided commentary for a San Francisco Attorney magazine article, New Habits Die Hard: Lawyers Predict Permanent Post-Pandemic Shifts, published in the Spring 2021 issue.
In terms of impacts on the practice of law, Grunfeld noted the limitations of Zoom for collaboration with colleagues: “I found it very awkward,” she said. “Those kinds of team-building, in-person meetings where we really thought creatively about what we wanted to do and what the case really demanded, I miss those types of interactions.”
The article concludes with a description of the devastating impact of the pandemic on the firm’s incarcerated clients:
“Grunfeld has continued to come into her office every day, even while most of the firm’s staff has worked remotely. ‘We represent approximately 40,000 incarcerated people,’ she said, who rely on handwritten letters and phone calls to communicate in the middle of a public health crisis. Working with such a vulnerable population made her appreciate her own situation and the fact that the firm’s social distancing and cleaning procedures kept her and the other employees safe during the pandemic.
On Jan. 19, the firm joined with the Prison Law Office and ACLU to commemorate those lost during the pandemic. It was held online on the same day as the national memorial, which included the ringing of church bells and lighting of candles around the Lincoln Memorial.Grunfeld’s firm read the names of 217 clients who died of COVID-19 in state prisons and thought about the countless others who were struggling, including some with disabilities who had to be isolated for their own safety.
‘We’ve all been scarred by what’s happened, the devastation and the fear,’ Grunfeld said. ‘Normal may never look the same again.’”