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Prior to everything getting crazy, I accepted an offer for a firm for their L&E practice. L&E has been hot lately, and it has been hot with the coronavirus in terms of advice and counsel for employers - but if the economy keeps dipping, I wonder if I made an unwise decision.

For one, I would probably be working from home for who knows how long given everyone is. I wonder if that would hurt my chances of being known at the firm since people don't know me. I am also hoping that my work wouldn't be sloppy working from home with the lack of printer.

Anyway, I just feel nervous. I already gave notice to my firm, so it's not like I can just stay. For its worth, the firm I am lateraling to apparently did not lay anyone off in the 2008 recession.

The work-from-home piece will be the case no matter where you end up at this point. Is it an ideal circumstances when trying to establish a reputation at a new firm? No. But these aren't normal times, and you would just need to make an effort to meet people via phone calls and webcam.

I do L&E (in-house currently, but spent 6.5 years in biglaw), and one of the good things about the practice is that its always in demand. If the economy is booming and things are going well, businesses are hiring, and they need help managing their growth. And when things are going terribly and the economy is going to hell, they need lots of help with layoffs, employee communications, policy questions, etc.

Coronavirus could almost be its own practice group at this point, and much of that is L&E work.