Biglaw's Chaotic Pandemic Hours

It's not just you -- hours have gotten increasingly erratic during COVID.

Biglaw has never been known for its reasonable hours — even in the best of times. But as we all know, surviving and working through a pandemic makes everything more challenging.

Client demands haven’t taken a knee as COVID raged on. So even when you had to teach your kid some new math or tried to get anyone to take a nap, work still had to be done. According to reporting by Law.com, Biglaw was sympathetic to those other obligations — but that meant the day just ended later, because the work still had to get done:

“We have made it clear that we understand that there are periods of time in the normal working day in which you are unavailable,” said William Hartnett, chairman of Cahill Gordon & Reindel’s executive committee. “People had gaps during the working day in which they weren’t working, which extends their days into the early evening.”

Some attorneys, for example, cannot be available from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on school days, so they’re online at midnight, Hartnett said. Time zones are also a complicating factor: Cahill litigation department chairman Herbert Washer logs in at 5 a.m. for his European clients and often ends his day around 11 p.m. after wrapping up his domestic work.

While client demands don’t stop, those arbitrary deadlines that are infamous in Biglaw can be curbed:

“We’re all required to meet their schedules. One thing that both Herb and I insist on is that the scheduling pressure should come from the outside, not internally. We don’t have control of the clients’ schedule, nor are we entitled to,” Hartnett said.

But even with firms trying to alleviate the extra stressors for their attorneys, folks are still working like dogs. Cahill says demand is up 20 percent, and elite firms are generally doing pretty well for themselves in the COVID world. No wonder they’re happy to share the largesse with associates:

“These firms understand how busy their associates are and people are working much harder than they have in the last 10 years,” said Ru Bhatt, a partner in Major, Lindsey & Africa’s New York associate practice group. “Firms are in a place where they’re sharing the wealth a little bit because they understand it’s tough.”

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While all the extra bonus money sure has been nice for associates, being able to take a breather and get back to some semblance of normalcy is really what everyone is hoping for.


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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