Biglaw

Ropes & Gray Sweetens Office Reopening With Free Food

That's right: free breakfast, lunch, and snacks for all lawyers and staffers in all offices.

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Several law firms have already announced plans for the reopening of their offices. At most of them — and for the handful of firms doing soft openings this summer — between now and September, offices will be open for voluntary, optional use so that lawyers and staff members can casually reacquaint themselves with in-person law firm life. As we know all too well, after more than a year of working remotely, some employees aren’t exactly eager to return to the office; in fact, they may be dreading it.

What could make the situation a little more palatable? Free food, and lots of it.

That’s exactly what will be happening at Ropes & Gray — the Biglaw firm that was first to officially end the five-day, in-office workweek for associates. According to a source, the firm will be providing complimentary breakfast, lunch, and snacks every day of the week from the day after Memorial Day through Labor Day for all lawyers and staffers as part of its office return plans. Eva Ciko Carman, managing partner of the firm’s New York office, announced the news this week:

If you choose to come into the office, the firm would like to welcome you back with complimentary breakfast and lunch, prepared by Flik. That’s right: Free food for anyone in the office. …

[I]f you’re comfortable coming into the office, we hope that this will be a nice treat.

The free meals will be offered in all of the firm’s U.S. offices, as well as the firm’s London office. Employees will be treated to an array of standard breakfast fare (sandwiches, eggs, bagels, muffins, fruit, and yogurt) and for lunch, there will be a variety of salads, sandwiches, burgers, and desserts (ranging from cookies to fruit).

If you’d like to encourage your lawyers and support teams to return to the office voluntarily, why not make it a little more delicious? Kudos to Ropes & Gray for sweetening the idea of returning to the office.

(Flip to the next page to see the full memo from Ropes & Gray.)

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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.

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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