Safety Tips for Legal Professionals

A survey conducted over a 12-year period of time of attorneys from 28 different states, found that 40% of them reported having been assaulted or threatened. For family law attorneys, that percentage jumped to 54%.

And those numbers doesn’t include threats against judges, courthouse administrators or staff, paralegals, and legal assistants. 

Legal professionals face threats from clients, opposing parties, friends and family of clients, opposing parties, as well as members of the general public upset about the nature of a case or a law firm’s client. 

Attacks against legal professionals have occurred in parking lots, at or near courthouses, at their law offices, at home, and while being out in the field.

Attacks are often emotions driven. But can also relate to money, liberty, the nature and type of cases, as well as its level of publicity, and even current events and politics.

In this piece, we’ll discuss some safety practices that legal professionals can adopt to stay safe while they are at the office or home, the courthouse, or out in the field.

I spent 30+ years serving law firms as a litigation investigator. During that time I experienced threats to my own safety. Whether from people in the neighborhoods where I worked, the people I interacted with, and those, including law enforcement, that I investigated. 

I’ve trained hundreds of legal professionals including courthouse administrators and staff, judges, juvenile probation and parole officers, attorneys, paralegals, legal assistants and other law firm staff in workplace violence prevention, and personal safety training.

Beyond these tips, every firm should provide training in situational awareness, de-escalation, changing the dynamics of an attack, and self-defense. And should create a firm safety plan. For more information on keeping staff safe and preventing workplace violence, check out my FREE PDF Workplace Violence Prevention Checklist. You can download it here. 

PARKING LOT/GARAGE SAFETY

Parking lots, whether at the office, or at the courthouse provide the most exposure to an attack. 

•  It’s a known location where a legal professional who is targeted is likely to be located. Often law firm and courthouse parking are assigned spaces, in locations that are not exactly secret.
•  Parking lots are designed in such a way that it is much easier, whether through access gates, security guards, cameras etc. to limit vehicle access than to limit foot traffic. Virtually anyone can walk into a parking garage or lot, even ones that have security controls.
•  Parking lots and garages provide limited lines of sight due to design and layout. There are cars, pillars, and other obstructions that limit your ability to see while creating hiding places for an attacker.

These tips will help you enhance your safety while you are in a parking lot or garage:

•  Safety risks are biggest at fixed points such as an assigned parking space, and parking lot and garage exits. These fixed points allow for someone to watch and wait for you while being out of view. So it’s incumbent to begin scanning the areas around those locations before you get to them.
•  Once you get to your parking space, keep the engine running, and look around you before you get out of your vehicle. While this sounds simplistic, most people arriving at work or the courthouse immediately begin gathering their belongings rather than paying attention to their immediate surroundings. Keeping the engine running, while scanning the area around you, allows you the ability to exit a threat in the relative safety of your vehicle.
•  Once you exit your car, walk against the flow of vehicular traffic, and at the location that offers you maximum visibility and space from obstacles. Often, this is in the center of the driving lane. Walking against the flow of traffic makes it harder for someone to drive up behind you. And with each step you take you create distance from someone behind you. The greater the distance from potential obstacles, the easier, and earlier, you will be able to avoid, or to maneuver away from an encounter with an attacker.

OFFICE SAFETY

Many offices incorporate a system that limits access to members of the public. However, for law firms, this may not help reduce safety threats, as threats can come from clients, and their families as well as opposing parties and others who may have to be present at the firm as part of a case. So limiting access through physical means may provide only limited protection.

And once someone is inside your office space and individual workspace, those layouts can actually work against you.

Finally, due to the emotional component that drives some attacks on legal professionals, for front desk personnel, the ability to communicate concerns in a more subtle fashion, is critical to having back up and support.

Here’s how to make the workspace safer:

•  Safety starts with the reception/front desk area. It should be positioned with a clear line of sight to the main entrance, and should allow whoever is working up there to exit safely to the rest of the office without having that route and path blocked by a visitor.
•  The front desk reception area should have a communication system in place, whether through an intercom, or a wireless doorbell that connects to the those in the back offices. For an intercom system, the firm should identify a word to use as a passcode to alert management of any problems that require assistance at the front desk or even a call to 911. A wireless doorbell at the front desk can be connected to a plugin light that flashes, or to a buzzer that rings, where management can see it activate.
•  Personal workspace and office areas. Lawyers typically locate their desk so that they face the door of their office when they sit at their desks. Often there are chairs for clients and staff to sit positioned between their desk and the door. The office may even have a small conference table with a couple of chairs also located in between the desk and the door, or to the side of the desk. However, this is not the best layout, as it allows a visitor to position himself between the door and the desk trapping you inside the office. A better approach is to have the desk, or conference table positioned in a way that allows you to get to the office door without being blocked.

FIELD SAFETY

Whether it is to conduct witness interviews, meet with clients and prospective clients, or to meet with other legal professionals involved in the case, legal professionals must sometimes operate out in the community or visit a person, including a total stranger, in his home.

These tips will help legal professionals keep safe while out in the field:

•  There’s safety in numbers. When a team member has to go out into the community, or to someone’s home, in order to meet with a witness, client, or client’s family, it is best to have two people go. They should devise a fallback safety strategy to address any safety threats that crop up.
•  When meeting in a public space, or an individuals home, it is best to position yourself where you have a vantage point that provides for the maximum view of the location, and ease of access to an exit. Mentally locate any nearby exits, and the routes you need to take to get there. Make sure to position yourself to make it harder for someone to approach you from behind, or to surprise you.
•  When you approach a private residence, or a meeting location, listen to your gut instinct. If you are feeling any sense of unease, whether from the appearance of the property, or the people within it, don’t go inside where you can be attacked. Conduct your business on the front porch, an outdoor table, or some other place with higher visibility. Don’t worry if you think the person you are meeting might feel insulted. You need to keep safe in order to provide the best quality service to your client.

For additional tips on how to prevent workplace violence and keep yourself and your staff safe, download my FREE Workplace Violence Prevention checklist.