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Wishing David Lat A Speedy Recovery From COVID-19

Updated Tuesday: Lat is off oxygen!

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This is one of the more awkward columns I’ve ever had to write. Above the Law is known for being irreverent and snarky, so a heartfelt post about a personal friend feels a little strange. But also strange is not acknowledging that a prominent figure in the legal world is currently hospitalized with the coronavirus. That’s right: David Lat, who founded Above the Law in 2006, has been diagnosed with the coronavirus.

UPDATE 3/22/2020: Late Friday night/Saturday morning Lat’s condition took a turn for the worse. His oxygen levels dropped and he’s been put on a ventilator. He’s reportedly in critical condition. His husband, Zack Shemtob, told Law.com:

“He’s not doing great,” Shemtob said, adding that the NYU Langone doctors and other staff “are really attending to him. They’re taking it hour by hour, day by day.”

Shemtob also urged care during the pandemic, “Please be vigilant and careful as possible.” And, “I just want people to know how serious this can be.” 

UPDATE 3/23/2020: Since news of Lat’s worsening condition from COVID-19 began to spread across the legal industry Above the Law has been inundated with well-wishers for him and inquiries about his condition. Medically there hasn’t been much change. Lat remains sedated on a ventilator at NYU Langone undergoing an experimental treatment of azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine. Shemtob told Law.com that, at this point, the treatment Donald Trump has been hyping on Twitter (based on a small French study) is the best option:

“[I]f they [doctors] had a non-experimental regime, this is what one would want, but the problem is given how new and novel this virus is, we are just wanting them [the doctors] to do, to do what they think makes the most sense medically.”

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Now it’s a matter of waiting and seeing if Lat responds well to the drug therapy. As Shemtob said, “We won’t know for a few more days, whether he’s going to get better—whether this stuff [the treatment] is working or not.”

Shemtob also noted that Lat’s family has been unable to see him during his hospitalization, as doctors try to stem the contagious disease. But the outpouring of care for Lat’s condition has been a bright spot in this trying time:

But on Monday, Shemtob said that “the one silver lining in all of this is that it’s been wonderful to hear from friends, acquaintances, people we don’t even know who have been touched in some way by this.”

“We appreciate everyone’s love and thoughts and prayers,” he said.

“I just want to stress again, for folks to stay safe,” he went on, “and to stop congregating together, to please take this stuff seriously.”

UPDATE 3/27/2020: Lat has been taken off the experimental drug therapies he’d been receiving, and his husband says there have been “mild” improvements in his condition:

“There have been mild improvements in his oxygen and his breathing, but he remains intubated, and we are still very far from out of the woods,” said Zachary Baron Shemtob, Lat’s husband, in a phone interview.
“I just want to stress that these improvements are modest, and that we are still waiting,” he said. “We remain hopeful.”

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Doctors are still taking it day by day, and they’ve not yet determined what Lat’s further treatment might entail:

“Just because this [coronavirus] is so new,” said Shemtob, “the doctors are taking it day by day,” and they haven’t tried to predict what may come next as far as treatments, or how Lat will do.

“There is no timeline” for Lat’s hoped-for progress, he added, because “there’s not a lot of good comparator” cases.

UPDATE 3/28/2020: Lat’s out of the ICU! He reports on social media that he is in stable but serious condition and still requires oxygen 24/7. And though this is obviously good news, he also notes, “I’m not out of the woods yet. But I’m upbeat and optimistic, strengthened by all your thoughts, prayers, and wishes for a speedy recovery.”

UPDATE 3/31/2020: Lat is off oxygen!

Lat’s been very forthcoming in his personal interactions with the pandemic, posting about his diagnosis on social media.

As close watchers of ATL know, Lat stepped away from the day-to-day operations of the blog in 2019 and transitioned to a role as a legal recruiter at Lateral Link. However, he couldn’t really stay away and he writes a biweekly column for us. And we first got the inkling something was amiss yesterday when his biweekly column wasn’t ready. That’s when he shared he was waiting on the results of COVID-19 testing, which was eventually confirmed as positive.

Throughout his medical saga, Lat has lamented about how difficult it was to actually get the COVID-19 test. Without knowledge of direct exposure or international travel to hot zones, he had to jump through a series of hoops — a process he described on Facebook as “Kafkaesque.” We hope that, armed with an accurate diagnosis, he (and his husband, who also has the illness) can quickly make a full recovery.

And let’s hope he finds it less painful than his time at Wachtell. (Sorry, I had to do it.)

headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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