Biglaw

Biglaw Firm Plans A September Return To Office, But Has No Plans To Make Lawyers Come In 5 Days Each Week

Another law firm with a very flexible return to office work policy.

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Flexibility continues to remain the goal for law firms considering a return to in-office business in the wake of the pandemic. Yet another Biglaw firm is planning to fully reopen its U.S. offices after Labor Day, and until then anyone who wants to return to their desks will be doing so on a completely voluntary basis.

Kramer Levin — a firm that came in at No. 98 on the most recent Am Law 100 ranking, with $390,000,000 gross revenue in 2020 — is expecting attorneys to return to the office “sometime in September, but not before September 20.” This timeline will give everyone a chance to make arrangements for future needs, like child care, elder care, schooling, and commuting.

In an email sent yesterday by co-managing partners Paul Schoeman and Howard Spilko, they reiterated flexibility was of the utmost importance, and that attorneys (and perhaps staffers) would not have to be in the office five days each week:

A key takeaway from the survey we conducted last year is that you want flexibility in where you work. We are working on the parameters and protocols for our return, including developing a flexible work policy that will address the expected number of days in the office per week and many other details. We are planning for our attorneys to be able to work some days in the office and some days remotely on average each week. Where roles and responsibilities permit for our staff, we are also developing flexibility arrangements.

That sounds pretty promising. “We are thankful for the progress made on the COVID-19 front, optimistic about the future and pleased that we can begin planning for our return to our offices in September,” Schoeman and Spilko noted in a statement about the firm’s reopening plans. “We want to provide ample time for our people to make this transition, and we are developing plans for there to be flexibility in where people work when we do return.”

The co-managing partners continued, speaking to Kramer Levin being built on its strong relationships that foster collaboration, mentorship, growth and excellent client service, concluding, “Our goal is to find a balance that ensures we continue to build on those fundamentals. We are inspired by the resilience of our community and confident we will find the right path for a smooth transition back to the office.”

What has your firm announced as far as a reopening plan is concerned? The more information is out there, the more likely it is that firms will be able to establish a market standard for a return to work.

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(Flip to the next page to see the full memo from Kramer Levin.)

As soon as you find out about the reopening plan at your firm, please email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Office Reopening”) or text us at (646) 820-8477. We always keep our sources on stories anonymous. There’s no need to send a memo (if one exists) using your firm email account; your personal email account is fine. If a memo has been circulated, please be sure to include it as proof; we like to post complete memos as a service to our readers. You can take a photo of the memo and attach as a picture if you are worried about metadata in a PDF or Word file. Thanks.

Staci ZaretskyStaci 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.

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