For the past 30 years, we have lived by a core value to take care of our clients and community—this enduring value guides us as we all face the difficult challenge of responding to the Coronavirus (COVID-19). Nichols Zauzig is dedicated to helping families and now, more than ever, our entire community is one extended family.
Like many other businesses, we are taking careful precautions to ensure your safety and wellbeing by closely following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Virginia Department of Health.
We intend to remain in the business of serving people in the midst of this outbreak, but it is also important to make some changes to be part of the COVID-19 solution. To that end, it is important we share with you the immediate steps we are taking to keep the health and safety of our team, our clients, and the community at large a top priority:
Taking Care of our Team:
- While continuing to operate at full-capacity, we are implementing our firm’s preparedness plan by encouraging our attorneys and staff to work remotely as this situation unfolds in the coming weeks. Our team is nimble and able to work remotely as needed. Many of us already do.
- This helps encourage “social distancing” while ensuring our team(s) have the capability to remain fully-functional and available to continue supporting our clients.
- Additionally, we are providing regular updates to our staff regarding the latest Coronavirus data and information so we can adjust our plan of action as needed.
Taking Care of our Clients:
- We will be increasing our levels of electronic and telecommunications with our employees and clients. For the next two+ weeks (March 16 – March 31, 2020), we will reconfigure all person-to-person consultations, client meetings and case-related proceedings to telephone and/or video conferencing.
- We have deployed our lawyers and assistants, who already work together, to combine their efforts to cover for one another, should someone become ill. If you have an active matter, you can expect to hear from an attorney, paralegal or legal assistant with any updates on your case.
- With limited exceptions, all Virginia court proceedings are suspended until at least April 6. Many local jurisdictions have instituted their own varying policies on court procedures/closings (some exceed the April 6 mandate) and we anticipate that to be constantly evolving. If you have a case set in the near future, we will be in contact promptly to discuss any scheduling issues.
- It is our goal to be a steady and reassuring force for our clients and team during these uncertain times.
Taking Care of our Office:
- We will increase our cleaning and sanitizing protocol in our office.
- We have instituted procedures for anyone in the office to regularly wipe and use disinfectants on surfaces (such as desks and tables), objects (telephones, keyboards, copy machines, etc.), and in all common areas.
Things You Should Do:
We encourage you to contact the lawyer and legal assistant for your assigned matter to get an update on how changes in the court and office procedures may impact your case. We want to assure you that we will do everything in our power to work with you in a safe and considerate manner. Please let us know if you have any questions or special needs so we can do our best to accommodate.
We value and support you and greatly appreciate your business. We are all part of our community and we are all in this together. By these simple changes, we can all be part of beating COVID-19 and restoring the health of our community.
Take care of yourself and each other,
Your Nichols Zauzig Family
