"If the goal is to start slowly and build back to a sense of normalcy … I would assume it's being done in smaller and more deliberate steps," Mehler said.

Mehler said U.S. District Judge Rachel Kovner's decision to hold a "dress rehearsal" conference on Monday in the trial courtroom was helpful.

"For me, it was only the second time in more than a year that I had been in any court," he said.

While jury selection will be held in the Brooklyn courthouse's larger ceremonial courtroom, to allow for social distancing, Kovner's courtroom will be arranged in a manner that is becoming familiar for the small group of New York attorneys who have been allowed to move forward with in-person trials so far.

Jurors, including alternates, will sit in the gallery, spaced apart on rectangular stickers that read "Please Sit Here." Witnesses will testify from the jury box, one of the several spaces in the courtroom now encased in plexiglass paneling.

While lawyers will have to navigate the unusual circumstance of being sandwiched between the judge and the jury, making it difficult to address both at the same time, Mehler said he noticed that the attorneys' podiums are small and portable tabletop versions.

"You can maneuver it, and I guess you can keep one eye on the judge and one eye on the jury as you're standing and facing the witness," he said, but he noted that a lawyer giving opening and closing statements to the jury might turn their back on the judge, which is normally avoided.

At the dress-rehearsal conference, attorneys also familiarized themselves with the devices they will use to communicate during the trial while they're unable to lean in for whispered conversations.

"They have this walkie-talkie that has different channels, and one channel allows everyone to communicate and then there's another channel that just allows the members of the defense team to confer among themselves, so I'm eager to see how that works in real life," Mehler said.

Mehler said he's curious to see how sidebars will work amid social distancing, including whether the walkie-talkies will be used. If jurors have to be sent out of the room for a conversation to take place at normal volume, he predicted the case will involve fewer sidebars to prevent disruption.

Like most public buildings, the courthouse has also introduced a series of public health restrictions.

Everyone is required to either double-mask or wear an N95 or KN95, and entry to the building involves the now-ubiquitous temperature check and screening questions. Items going through the magnetometer must be placed in a single-use plastic liner, and doors are left open where possible to prevent unnecessary handling.