With the COVID-19 vaccine rollout underway across the country, lawyers and staff members alike are wondering what their Biglaw firms are planning to do. The move to work remotely due to the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus came quickly, but decisions related to vaccination plans seem to be moving at a glacial pace.
What could possibly be taking these firms so long to tell employees that they’ll be requiring or encouraging them to get vaccinated? As it turns out, Biglaw vaccine decisions may be just like their year-end bonus decisions: They’re all waiting for another firm with clout to do it first.
April Campbell, the executive director of the Association of Legal Administrators, recently discussed this phenomenon with Law360.
Firms appear to be waiting for a first mover to take the lead, and most are still gauging the temperature in the room, or more specifically the temperature at their firm and in their particular geography, Campbell said.
“Everyone is thinking about it. Many are getting pressure from staff to have a response or answer on whether the vaccine will be required to come back into the office,” she said. “But as with everything law firm, they want to know what everyone else is doing.”
But there’s only a limited amount of time left for law firm leadership to hem and haw over their COVID-19 vaccine policies. After all, the CDC has recommended that lawyers, judges, and legal professionals be included in vaccine distribution group 1C, and it won’t be long before that time comes.
“While I understand they don’t want to finalize anything yet, we should not be doing nothing,” said Michael Cohen, a Duane Morris LLP partner, who suggested that firm committees must at least start talking about “what makes the most sense — to mandate, to encourage, and if they choose to encourage how to do that most effectively.” Noah Fiedler, a partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson, said that while “[i]t is true to say most don’t know yet … it’s also true to say most firms have spent months thinking about it.” Options are on the table, according to Fiedler, but decisions have yet to be made. But while actual guidance is lacking, surveys abound on this issue.
[Fiedler] said the larger firms he’s working with are actually conducting surveys to figure out what their employees and attorneys are thinking — do they want to get it? Would they be afraid to come back into the office if it is not mandated?
And the ALA’s Campbell says she has seen the same thing, with some of the organization’s law firms conducting surveys.
That said, Above the Law will run its own survey on this important issue. What are your law firm’s plans when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines? Please let us know.
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Why Law Firms May Not Require Vaccine For Attys And Staff [Law360]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.