Editor’s note: This is part of an ongoing series that looks at how New Jersey State Bar Association members’ work lives have changed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ever since the pandemic upended life and the way New Jersey attorneys work, Frances Nicotra has found the margins separating her work 
and personal life have blurred. The Jersey City family law and elder guardianship attorney noticed she’s been getting more work emails late at night and on weekends.
“Eventually, we’re going to have to make an adjustment and establish these boundaries,” said Nicotra, a New Jersey State Bar Association member and incoming president of the Hudson County Bar Association.
Her work has been disrupted and made more challenging in a number of ways. A solo practitioner, Nicotra mostly works at home these days, with occasional forays to her office, which she shares with another attorney and office staff. When in the office she wears a mask and gloves now, but said, “It’s nearly impossible to maintain that social distance when we’re all together, so we have to thin out. I rarely stay at the office because of that.”
Nicotra has been busy, but her elder guardianship assignments have almost dried up, and she hasn’t been able to visit clients in nursing homes because of social distancing requirements.
“You can’t bring people to court and you can’t really visit them. It’s very difficult to see that person because you don’t want to get them sick. So it seems like those cases are in a state of suspension,” Nicotra said.
A bright spot while sheltering at home has been the time she spends with two friends from the Circus Warehouse in New York, who are “quaranteaming” with her. The pair train Nicotra in aerial work on straps, hoops and fabric ribbons hung from the ceiling beams in her living room.
They also helped her choreograph and launch a YouTube series last month, called “Frannie Law.” The short clips merge her interest in law, performance and the aerial arts, as she explains legal terms such as “summons” and “discovery” in a lighthearted way.
Though the activities are welcome diversions, it’s not all play and no work.
“I still have to be a lawyer by day,” Nicotra said