Rick Howell was quoted in the Law.com article, "System Overload: Lagging Internet May Be Inconvenient Mainstay for Attorneys," regarding the tools provided by Perkins Coie to attorneys and staff to help manage any slow internet issues.

For Perkins Coie chief information officer Rick Howell, who got the 1,100 attorney firm working remotely in 10 days, he’s seen slow internet complaints mostly from attorneys and staffers who work in densely populated areas.

To combat congested internet, the firm provides bandwidth test tools to its data center and staff to determine where the problem is occurring, Rick said. If it’s a local disruption, the firm provides the staffer or lawyer with a mobile WiFi (MiFi) hot spot. When there’s trouble moving large files, the firm will connect the user to a virtual desktop infrastructure, so the traffic stays in Perkins Coie’s data center, he added.