Biglaw

Flexibility Is A Two-Way Street When It Comes To This Biglaw Firm's Reopening Plans

The firm's managing partner has no plans to micromanage anyone's schedule.

By  
on

When it comes to reopening plans in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it looks like the majority of Biglaw firms are going with a phased-in approach to their return to the office. Flexibility remains a priority at most firms, and the only thing up in the air is the number of days employees will have to be physically present in the office. Now that a bit of uniformity seems to have been established in the market, let’s check in with another firm to see what they’ve got planned.

Arent Fox — ranked No. 107 in the most recent Am Law 200, with a 2020 gross revenue of $333,600,000 — recently announced its own phased-in return to the office. “The goal is for Arent Fox to be fully open as of September—after Labor Day,” said managing partner Cristina Carvalho in an interview with the American Lawyer. On July 6, all of the firm’s U.S offices will be open, and according to Carvalho, employees will likely come in once a week, and eventually, work their way up to coming in twice a week. While it’s expected that all personnel will maintain a “routine physical presence” in the office when the firm has fully reopened, flexibility is still on the table.

Carvalho said Arent Fox isn’t planning to define for staff and lawyers how many days they must spend in the office. Instead, she is confident that colleagues will find a mix that suits them, both personally and professionally.

“It’s not my intention to micromanage and say which day people are going to be in the office. Ultimately, we all understand what we need to do and, ultimately, we’re all here in the business of servicing our clients. Everybody at the firm has good judgment. And everyone will keep that ultimate goal in mind,” said Carvalho, who added that some staff and practice areas with responsibilities will likely find they need to spend more time in the office, but that the decision will be left to the individual and their managers.

Calvalho noted that flexibility must be a two-way street. “The firm will provide for a flexible schedule for everyone but, lawyers and the staff should also be flexible,” she said. “Sometimes there’s emergency situations or impromptu meetings or client demands where colleagues might need to make unscheduled trips in. That’s the nature of the business.”

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 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.

Arent Fox and Baker McKenzie Emphasize Individual Responsibility in Return to Office Policies [American Lawyer]

Sponsored

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

Topics

, , , ,