David Elibol, managing partner at Gross Shuman PC in Buffalo, solicits employees for their assessments of how the firm is handling the pandemic.
“We ask them what have we done wrong, what have we done right and what could we have done better,” he said. “We want everybody’s feedback and input because we have a lot of smart and talented people on all levels.”
Litigation and trial work temporarily slowed due to court closures early on and lawyers went to work helping clients with employment issues. Work in other sectors, such as real-estate transactions, also kept the firm busy.
“The real-estate market seems to be going pretty strong right now, so that work has remained steady,” he said.
That helped the firm stay on track with plans for growth, as did a loan through the federal government Paycheck Protection Program. Elibol said the firm sought the PPP money to alleviate business losses that didn't end up not being as significant as management anticipated.
“Early on we were concerned about a dip in business,” he said. “We just wanted to make sure we had the resources necessary to pay salaries and certain expenses that were permitted by the program.”
The firm has 18 lawyers for a total of 45 employees who all have the flexibility to work from where they feel safest, office or home. It ranked as the 18th largest firm in the region along with Brown Chiari LLP in Business First's 2020 list.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a continuing series that examines how Buffalo law firms are faring through the pandemic.
“We had a strategic plan in place prior to the pandemic and we've continued to stay on course with that plan,” Elibol said. “What the pandemic did do is force us to look at our staffing needs, our overhead, expenses, luxuries, necessities and things along those lines, but we’ve continued to grow and it hasn’t derailed us.”
The firm has an internal disaster recovery committee that kept an eye on Covid-19 cases overseas.
“We put that committee to work and started thinking about different strategies in the event that it would affect us,” Elibol said. “We were fortunate that we had put into place the technology infrastructure that we needed so our attorneys could work remotely if it became necessary."
The firm plans to add lawyers in 2021 but does anticipate an economic fallout from the pandemic that could make next year a tough one.
“We don’t want to see anybody in this community be hurt," Elibol said, "but I think you’re going to see a lot of businesses who unfortunately do get hurt and that’s going to put us in the position where they’re going to need legal services.”