Robert L. McKenna III had a lot on his plate at the beginning of the pandemic. As an attorney and founding partner of Kjar, McKenna & Stockalper LLP, he had to make fast decisions about how to handle his regular to-do list and protect the law firm from the perils of COVID-19. While many of his colleagues from his competitors dismissed the concerns, McKenna knew that it was more than a passing panic. We’ll look at exactly what he did and how it ended up making a difference in the lives of his staff, his fellow partners, and the firm’s bottom line.
The Beginning
At the beginning of the pandemic, McKenna talked to a friend at a VC firm that specialized in biotech. In a casual conversation in early winter 2022, McKenna could start to see what was coming down the pipeline. Rather than be reactive, McKenna wanted to be as proactive as possible, which is why he started making plans as early as he possibly could.
He started asking the kinds of questions that plenty of business owners waited until the last possible second to do. He worked out logistical questions, like how he could maintain his clients’ privacy if his staff had to work from home, and whether the staff could operate efficiently if they couldn’t see each other every day. He let his partners know that if the physical office was going to shut down, they should have a plan in place to keep it up and running in a virtual space. He looped in the office manager, too, so everyone was on the same page about what had to happen.
His partners didn’t necessarily fight him, but they also didn’t see the need to be quite so urgent about the whole matter. It was up to McKenna to go over the office procedures, working out which ones would pose a problem if people couldn’t come in day after day. Turns out, he was in luck. While there were certain tasks that were non-negotiable, he was pleased to find that most daily duties could be done from wherever his staff happened to be.
The staff’s ability to work from their own homes was no accident, though. Because Robert McKenna has always been one to see a few steps ahead, he was the one who set up a functioning cloud-based business long before the word COVID was on the tongues of the entire US. From Zoom to VPNs to Google docs, he had set up everything long before he needed to.
National Emergency
When a national emergency was declared in the middle of March, the firm had a plan. After the news hit, everyone at McKenna’s staff simply pivoted to the scaled-back version of the office. Because they already had the functionality in place, they didn’t have to scramble to get everything in order. Robert McKenna didn’t need to be sold on the benefits of the cloud, as he had already seen how much more convenient it was to log in from anywhere, he happened to have an internet connection. Once the pandemic hit, he became even more convinced that the cloud was the best way to bring people together, even if they happened to be working very far apart.
His approach contrasted with that of many of his colleagues. Instead of prioritizing the safety of the staff, they decided that lawyers should be put in the same category as doctors or grocery store workers. They argued that they were just as essential, which allowed them to keep their offices open. What they didn’t count on was the residual effects of their decisions. As the pandemic wore on, these firms were not more productive. In fact, many ended up losing a lot more than they gained by refusing to shut down.
A Hybrid Model That Worked
The hybrid model that McKenna built was a nod to not just the seriousness of the situation. He may have been able to debate for a few hours that he shouldn’t be subjected to the same terms as other businesses or industries, but he chose not to. Part of why he did this was out of concern for people’s health. When his colleagues chose to stay open, it put their employees in a very precarious situation: they could keep their jobs, or they could risk exposure to a deadly virus.
Employees, particularly administrative staff, were starting to resent having to make the decision at all. Like so many workers did in the year or 2020 and beyond, they began to wonder if the risk was worth the reward. As they looked for new employers, McKenna was ready to offer a fair compensation package, one that would allow them to move where they wanted without having to worry about commuting to the office five days a week.
This turned out to be a particularly notable selling point in his area. Orange County, like so much of Southern California, wasn’t just expensive to live in. For many, it was downright prohibitive. The cost of living simply continued to rise, with housing ballooning to the point where you would need to make well into the six-figures to afford practically any property at all. It saw people leaving the area for more remote areas, where they might be able to raise families without having to worry about how they would pay all their bills. Because it was mostly legal administrative staff who were considering a move, the offices of Kjar, McKenna & Stockalper LLP ended up having a lot more to offer than just a salary and insurance package.
His new hires ended up being everything they promised and more. They were great at managing their time, both in the office and out. They didn’t need their hands held through complex processes, and the bump in productivity was significant. Whether working together or apart, the work was largely finished correctly and on time.
Looking Ahead
McKenna might not have been able to predict just how much COVID-19 would take from people. What he was able to do was make contingency plans that didn’t put his staff in danger. His actions led to a better staff and a smarter work model. Hybrid work isn’t just about avoiding viruses, it’s about establishing a work-life balance that doesn’t involve having to honk your horn six times in an hour-long traffic jam.
When McKenna thinks about the future, he’s certain that it won’t involve people being in the office every single day. Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s entirely discounted the power of face-to-face meetings either. There is plenty of value in being with people, in the same space, sharing everything from ideas to take-out. In other words, his firm hasn’t eliminated the need for an office by any stretch. Instead, he’s prioritizing flexibility, he’s asking his staff to pick a couple of days to come in, and he’s letting them choose the days that work best for them. The pandemic was an exercise in experimentation: how would people handle each new challenge and when would they start to prepare for the consequences of their actions? As it turned out, not every business could handle the stress that COVID-19 imposed. Whether a business spiked, stagnated, slowed, or folded altogether was, in part, a function of the owner’s chosen industry. The other part was how a leadership team handled the threats. Robert McKenna may not be perfect, but the precautions he took at the very beginning ended up being a boon for more than just himself and his fellow partners. Now that the pandemic has largely passed us by, he’s only taking the lessons he’s learned and building them into better policies for his staff.