Florida-headquartered law firm Cole, Scott & Kissane (CSK) has attributed its ability to weather the COVID-19 pandemic without layoffs or pay cuts to its use of Zoom, which now largely replaces WebEx and LifeSize as its main video meeting and webinar tool.
Since March, CSK has used Zoom daily to conduct legal proceedings including depositions, hearings, and mediations. In April, the firm participated in the very first Zoom oral argument in Florida, hosted by the Fourth District Court of Appeal (DCA). Subsequently, CSK also participated in oral arguments in Florida’s Third DCA and First DCA. Last week, on July 13, 2020, CSK became the first law firm in Florida to do a virtual trial by jury. Additionally, during the coronavirus pandemic, CSK utilized Zoom Video Webinars to host client marketing and training events with more than a thousand attendees. CSK was even able to continue hiring during the pandemic, interviewing applicants over Zoom.
“Zoom has been an essential part of keeping our business running,” said Jason Thomas, chief information officer at CSK. “We needed to quickly pivot and change the way we work and Zoom fit our need for an intuitive and secure solution that our attorneys could start using right away. Zoom has the most robust security features out of any platform that we’ve used, and our users found it much easier than our legacy system––adoption and usage just skyrocketed.”
Zoom has become the darling of the post-COVID-19 world and is the latest extraordinary example of two things – how fast cloud technology can evolve, and how user experience trumps all when it comes to tech adoption, with even the many of the most tech-adverse law firm partners reportedly now conducting a large amount of their daily business on Zoom.
“We are proud that our technology is able to help CSK’s more than 500 attorneys and thousands of team members and clients maintain business continuity during the pandemic,” said Mitch Tarica, head of North America sales at Zoom. “We are gratified to provide a frictionless, secure, and reliable platform to keep people connected and keep business going during this uncertain time.”