If you have been online in the past few weeks, chances are you have seen the viral video in which a Texas lawyer appeared in a virtual legal proceeding over Zoom with a filter that turned his face into that of an adorable kitten – and then could not figure out how to turn it off. “I’m here live. I’m not a cat,” said the lawyer, to which the judge responded, “I can see that” before trying to walk the lawyer through fixing the filter issue.
In the current times of social distancing and work-from-home protocols, you would likely be hard pressed to find someone who has not utilized Zoom or similar application in lieu of an in-person meeting. Members of all areas of the legal profession are no exception, and lawyers have turned to Zoom to conduct depositions, hearings, client meetings, and even to participate in trials. A study conducted in 2020 by The National Judicial College found that among 702 judges who responded to a survey indicated that 48% of judicial officers preferred to use Zoom and 25% preferred WebEx when conducting virtual proceedings.[1]
Despite the generally user-friendly nature of Zoom and similar online video conferencing platforms, the viral ‘cat lawyer’ video highlights the importance of being digitally savvy in order to put your best foot forward. The obvious lesson to be learned from the now infamous ‘cat lawyer’ is to ensure you do not have a filter activated before joining a Zoom meeting. However, there are a few other hidden tips and tricks that the team at Thomas Rubin & Kelley have learned over the past year which not only help a Zoom call run smoothly, but also safeguard some of the benefits of having in-person meetings, hearings, and depositions.
Keyboard Shortcuts:
Zoom offers many shortcuts you can navigate using keys as opposed to scrambling to find the right icon on the Zoom screen. To enable shortcuts within the Zoom interface, simply head over to your settings menu. These are the ones we have found to be most useful:
Space bar to mute/unmute microphone
Alt+V to start/stop video
Alt+Q to end the meeting
Alt+F to enter/exit full screen mode
Alt+S to start/stop screensharing
Share your screen:
When participating in a deposition, meeting, or hearing that requires, or would benefit from, the use of exhibits or a presentation, you can share your entire desktop screen, or just certain windows, with other participants. Simply click the Screenshare icon on the toolbar at the bottom of the meeting screen, and then the red Stop Share icon to turn it off (or use the shortcut mentioned above!).
As a warning – if you share your entire desktop, participants will be able to see anything displayed on your screen, meaning they can see other windows you have open, personal photographs or information displayed, and your email account if you have it pulled up. Always make sure you close out of anything you would not want on display for other participants before sharing your entire screen with the group.
Hide non-video attendees:
If you are hosting a larger call, the meeting screen can get cluttered quickly with participants. This can be especially distracting if some of them do not have their camera on anyway. Minimize these distractions by going to Settings > Video > Meetings, and clicking hide non-video participants.
Use break-out rooms:
One benefit of having a meeting in-person (in particular, a mediation), is that parties can be situated in different rooms/offices, allowing for private conversations or targeted discussions. You can still take advantage of that option, even if you are participating virtually. Zoom allows participants to break into smaller groups in separate sequestered “rooms.” Breakout rooms allow you to split your Zoom meeting in up to 50 separate sessions. The meeting host can choose to split the participants of the meeting into these separate sessions automatically or manually, or they can allow participants to select and enter breakout sessions as they please. The host can also switch between sessions at any time.
Thomas Rubin & Kelley attorneys have utilized this feature for mediations when confidential conversations are required, for depositions when we want to speak with clients privately off-the-record, and even for meetings when different groups needed to discuss separate topics and then rejoin the larger group to report back their conclusions.
It is entirely unclear when we will be able to return to the “status quo” of conducting meetings, hearings, and depositions in person. In the meantime, the abovementioned tips and tricks can help ease the burden of the Zoom evolution (and can hopefully prevent more ‘cat lawyer’ blunders!) If you have any questions about how the team at Thomas Rubin & Kelley PC is working to ensure the best representation for our clients, even in this time of unprecedented change, please contact Brian Rubin (brubin@trkfirm.com) or Michael Kelley (mkelley@trkfirm.com).
[1] https://www.judges.org/news-and-info/two-platforms-dominated-in-our-poll-of-virtual-court-operations/