By Daniel Roche and Stefanie Jedra, Marcum LLP

The Holiday Season is almost upon us, and it really makes us wonder where this year went.  Did you order your holiday gifts yet?  I ordered a Peloton in September and it just got here today – 8 weeks later.  So if gifts are ordered today, they’ll arrive on…January 15?  Just in time for … the Symposium?

On a serious note, over the past few months, we’ve been lucky enough to host many virtual “social hours” with law firms in our professional network.  Beyond enjoying social interactions during these isolating times, the focus has been to share insights about how we saw COVID-19 impacting matrimonial engagements – specifically, the impacts on business valuation, settlement offers, mediations, maintenance/support modifications, alimony calculations, and the additional discovery nuances/hurdles we’ve been experiencing since mid-March. It has been profound to see how these conversations have changed over the weeks and months as we have moved through this pandemic. 

We enjoyed the exchange of interesting insights and experiences.  What began as a small series of one-off social hours became a great knowledge-sharing platform for all of us. 

We must acknowledge that COVID-19 has affected every business and individual differently. For this reason, care must be taken and diligence exercised to understand the distinct impact of the pandemic on each of our clients personally and the privately held businesses that they have worked so hard to build. As much as we all wish the pandemic were already over, unfortunately it is not. It continues to impact our clients, their businesses and how attorneys and forensic accountants operate in the litigation landscape.

The most important takeaway is that the facts, circumstances, and story are more important than ever. Ask questions. Listen. Don’t forget that no single fact or circumstance exists in a vacuum – and the facts and circumstances as a whole dovetail into a cohesive story of what each client and/or business owners has individually experienced.

It has been profound to think about how all of our practices have been affected by this terrible pandemic. As a profession, we’ve worked together to educate one another and help our collective clients move their matters forward despite these unprecedented circumstances. Let’s remember how far we’ve come and the successes we’ve had through this process.

We sincerely thank all of you who welcomed us to discuss these important topics, and we look forward to continuing our conversations as we move to a hopeful end of this pandemic and beyond. 

Wishing you and your families a Safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

Hope to see you all in person soon!

Dan & Stef