Top 50 Biglaw Firm To Roll Out Relaxed Reopening Plan For Associates

This firm's plan is so chill.

Thus far, Americans have received almost 250 million COVID vaccinations, and more than half of those eligible have received one shot in the fight against the novel coronavirus. We still have a long way to go, but progress like this has inspired law firms to announce plans for office reopenings and returns to business as usual — or the new usual.

Today, we have news from a top 50 Am Law firm whose reopening plan will gently ease attorneys and staff back to work through various transition phases leading up to a full(ish) return after Labor Day.

According to our sources, Sheppard Mullin — a firm that brought in gross revenue of $867,416,00 in 2020 — has announced a return-to-office plan that will have all employees familiarized with their new office lives for a September return, on “some days,” meaning that remote work is still very much on the table for associates and staff. These are the three reopening phases that will be happening at the firm, as detailed in a memo that reiterated information spoken about during a town hall meeting yesterday (full memo available on the next page):

  • Now we invite those who are Fully Vaccinated to come to the office on some days.  If you are not FV or have other reasons why RTO does not make sense for you at this point, no worries.
  • Starting July 6 after the Independence Day Holiday we will move to “do your best” to come to the office on some days.  This is with the usual caveats including that you may have other obligations that keep you at home.  And of course we will apply our Intentional Flexibility concept to your individual situations.  (Remember our Summer Associates start the in-office phase of their time with us on July 6.  Please do your best with them!)
  • After doing our best for the summer, we will on September 7 after the Labor Day Holiday move to an expectation that we will come into the office on some days.  This expectation including the number and choice of days in the office will involve individual and team conversations about what is best for you, the Firm and our clients and will again be based on our Intentional Flexibility concept.  We do know for most of us there will be more time, and in many cases significantly more time, spent working remotely.

“No worries”? “Do your best”? “Come into the office on some days”? Sheppard Mullin’s office reopening plan is perhaps the most relaxed one we’ve heard of to date, and that’s sure to make a lot of people very happy. We’ve also been told that the firm has announced a program for associates and staff to take each other out to lunch or coffee on the firm’s dime to get back into the flow of office life.

Congratulations to Sheppard Mullin on creating what seems to be an incredibly easygoing reopening plan for all employees — a plan that fully embraces remote work because “work life will never be the same in our industry or in our Firm.”

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.

Sponsored

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.

Sponsored