Biglaw

Reed Smith Announces 'Flexible' Reopening, With No Mandatory Office Days For Lawyers

Lawyers will have to maintain a 'regular' presence, but nothing is set in stone. Wow!

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Biglaw firms continue to make progress when it comes to plans for the reopening of their offices and a return to work for attorneys and staff members. Thus far, the majority of firms have aimed for soft openings during the first week of July, and a full return sometime after Labor Day. Yesterday, another firm announced a similar plan, with an interesting twist: lawyers will not be required to work a certain number of days in the office.

Reed Smith — a firm that posted a 5.1% revenue increase in 2020, bringing its total gross to about $1.31 billion — has not only announced a return-to-work plan for all of its U.S. offices, but has created a flexible work policy for lawyers and staff on a global basis. The firm will roll out a three-phase reopening that will have everyone ready for office life on September 7, subject to local COVID restrictions.

In May, all U.S. offices will be ready to host more people working there. In June, the firm will host “Welcome Back Wednesdays,” where all employees will be encouraged to sign up to work one office Wednesday. On those days, employees will receive boxed lunches courtesy of Reed Smith and small social gatherings will be set up for everyone to reconnect safely. On July 6, the firm will have a soft opening, where employees will be able to come into the office by reservation only, with full staffing available. On September 7, all U.S. offices will be fully reopened.

During these phases, the summer associate program will begin remotely in May, with voluntary in-office activities scheduled in June and July. Lawyers will not have to work a set number of days in the office, even when the firm has fully reopened, but will be expected to maintain somewhat of a “routine physical presence” in the office (e.g., for client and team meetings, office events, training sessions, and practice group meetings). No mandatory office days for lawyers? This is big news, everyone. Much like the Ropes & Gray plan that ended the five-day, in-office workweek, this is something that’s revolutionary for Biglaw.

Staff will be assigned into three separate categories: office based (essential staff expected to resume a full-time office presence), hybrid (office presence will be required on a “routine basis”), and fully flexible (full-time remote work). This is yet another innovative policy from Reed Smith.

Here’s what Sandy Thomas, Reed Smith’s Global Managing Partner, thinks about the firm’s flexible reopening plans:

The move to flexible work represents a step forward in transforming our business based on the new understanding we have gained from our remote work experience during the pandemic. We have learned that we can serve our clients at the highest level in a work environment that includes flexibility, and that this arrangement offers significant benefits to our people as well.

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Casey Ryan, Reed Smith’s Global Head of Legal Personnel, had this to say:

Our working environment and the ways we support clients have changed significantly from the pre-pandemic world. We have adopted this flexible work policy with this new reality in mind and to capitalize on the best parts of what we have learned from remote working.

Congratulations to Reed Smith on creating a fully flexible return-to-office policy. We wonder if more firms will adopt something similar.

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.

As soon as you find out about reopening plans 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.

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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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