In A Bid To Nab Top Talent, Biglaw Firm Introduces Work-From-Home Program

Enjoy working in your pajamas!

Weil Gotshal & Manges launched a program earlier this month designed to provide a great new perk to their midlevel and senior associates. Now third-year associates and above can work from home one day a week as part of a formal program.

As Weil’s executive partner, Barry Wolf, told Law.com, this is the kind of perk millennials expect from professional jobs. The firm is willing to put in the effort —- and cast aside the antiquated notion that attorneys needs to be chained to their desks in order to prove they have the chops to make it in Biglaw —- to make this program work and keep young attorneys happy:

“There are differences in the generations,” said Barry Wolf, the firm’s executive partner and chair of its management committee. “Millennials are a terrific generation … but they’re different.
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“That’s what they’re used to,” Wolf said. “So it naturally would take some learning, some trying, some adapting for people now to understand that now you can work as efficiently and as well if someone is at home.”

Weil’s policy, which formalizes work-from-home arrangements up to one day a week, is one of the most generous we’ve heard about. Compare it to Sherman & Sterling’s work from home policy which gives associates work-from-home flexibility twice a month.

What’s even more remarkable is this is the same firm that made an April Fool’s joke out of work/life balance just a few years ago. I guess the notion that even Biglaw lawyers crave more balance in their lives is becoming mainstream. And if the firm garners a competitive advantage in the enternal battle for top talent by recognizing that, so much the better:

“We’re in a professional services business and our assets are our people,” Wolf said. “You need to attract and retain the best and brightest, and this is all in that effort.”

Congrats to midlevel and senior associates at Weil on this great new perk. Hope you enjoy working in your pajamas.

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