With unprecedented speed, the coronavirus outbreak has swept across the globe and upended economic and social life around the United States. Around the country, people and companies are adjusting to the new conditions and trying to figure out how to best move forward in this uncertain environment.
Our hearts go out to communities around the country. We are thinking of our friends, clients, and neighbors during this time. We know that the uncertainty will end, and when it does we will all emerge stronger.
During this time of uncertainty we are encouraging our team and our communities to do good, and join the fight against the impact of COVID-19. The team at Hilgers Graben is working to help our local communities in this battle:
- Our firm is making a financial contribution to the Lincoln COVID-19 response fund;
- Our firm is making financial contributions to efforts in Dallas, Denver, and Lincoln to support impacted restaurants, small businesses, and their employees;
- We are encouraging our employees to follow CDC guidelines, to donate to local food pantries or other charities in their communities, to donate blood (which is in short-supply), to not hoard, and, most importantly, to help their neighbors (especially the elderly who may need extra care and attention during the pandemic).
We also know that our clients are shifting their businesses and legal departments to working remotely. Many are adjusting to work-from-home operations, often transitioning hundreds if not thousands of employees to a cloud-based and virtually managed environment. At the same time, we know many are thinking about cash flow and the financial health of their companies. Budgets, projections, and needs are being re-written on the fly. We are thinking daily about the people, family, and businesses that are being impacted.
Our firm is looking to do its part to help our clients through this period of uncertainty. For the last nine years we have built and managed a workforce that has the capability to work from home or in a virtual environment. We understand the security, management, IT, and related issues that these remote scenarios raise because we have solved them for our own teams through years of experience, and in light of the coronavirus we are now working from home firm-wide without a hiccup. We also have refined our business processes and taken advantage of geographic arbitrage, which have let us keep rates stable for five years and which, on average, have been 55% less than Big Law while offering the same quality of legal talent.
We have joined the fight in our community, and we are taking care of our team and clients at this time of uncertainty. We hope you all stay healthy and safe during these trying times and know that this crisis will pass but until it does that we will see the best all Americans can offer each other.