Since the pandemic in early 2020 life at the WCAB has not been the same.  Applicant’s attorneys essentially worked from the Board, operating their daily business from courtrooms and adjacent coffee shops Monday through Thursday.  As a defense attorney, If you ever needed to talk to your opponent, you knew where you could probably find them.  Since the changes implemented during COVID were ratified as the “new normal”, things haven’t been the same.  To maintain that necessary personal relationship, extra effort has to be made now to see someone face to face.  In the last three years I have made it a point to go to applicant’s attorneys’ offices and see the opposition.  Seeing who you are dealing with face to face and building a level of trust is how deals get done,