Biglaw, Fashion, Perks / Fringe Benefits

Biglaw Perk Watch: A Business Casual Dress Code

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We’re picking up our somewhat dormant series of posts on the perks or fringe benefits of large law firm life. Today’s topic: a business casual dress code.
When we were at a firm, we didn’t enjoy this particular privilege. In fact, our firm required business attire on every weekday — even Fridays during the summer. It was also one of the last places to allow women to wear pantsuits.
Many legal employers, however, do allow lawyers to dress in business casual attire, as long as they don’t have a client meeting or court appearance that day. At the Legal Aid Society of New York, you can even show up in casual attire on such a day, and just change in your office before heading off to court.
But could a trend be starting in the other direction? One tipster reports:

Our Firm is considering moving to a “professional” dress code after years of business casual. This means all of us struggling associates will have to dole out significant cash to populate our suit collection (save for that one d****e-bag who was wearing suits ever since he was a summer).

Was hoping you could do a post to see if this is a pandemic movement — and whether associates have won clothing stipends to defray the cost of change.

So, any takers? Does your firm have a business casual policy? If so, how likely is it to stay that way?

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