Biglaw Heavy Hitters Add Vaccine Mandates To Their Reopening Policies
More firms join in to protect their employees from the spread of COVID-19.
Biglaw firms continue to revise their return-to-office plans in light of the hypercontagious Delta variant of COVID-19. Firms that once waved away vaccine requirements are now embracing them, and office reopenings previously slated for next month are now being pushed into the fall. Which firms are the latest to add vaccine mandates to their plans?
Thus far, the firms that have made vaccination a requirement for those returning to the office include Akin Gump, Arent Fox, Cooley, Clifford Chance, Cozen O’Connor, Crowell & Moring, Davis Polk, Davis Wright Tremaine, Debevoise & Plimpton, Dickinson Wright, Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath, Fenwick & West, Fried Frank, Goodwin, Hanson Bridgett, Hogan Lovells, Hueston Hennigan, Lowenstein Sandler, McDermott Will & Emery, Mintz, Norton Rose Fulbright, Patterson Belknap, Paul Weiss, Reed Smith, Ropes & Gray, Sanford Heisler, Schiff Hardin, Seyfarth Shaw, Simpson Thacher, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, Weil Gotshal, Wilson Sonsini, and Winston & Strawn.
Now, we can add another five firms to the list. Ballard Spahr, Boies Schiller Flexner, Cleary Gottlieb, Davis & Gilbert, and Sheppard Mulllin have all recently added vaccination mandates to their safety protocols, and some of them will be delaying their full reopenings due to the Delta variant.
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Ballard Spahr will now require everyone who wants to enter the office (e.g., employees, visitors, clients, and vendors) to be vaccinated, according to chairman Mark Stewart.
On Sunday evening, Boies Schiller notified employees that they must be vaccinated if they want to go into the office. The firm will stage a full reopening in late September or early October, depending on the “specific health factors” of each office region.
Yesterday, Cleary Gottlieb announced that it would be mandating vaccines for all U.S. personnel before they can enter the office, with medical or religious exemption requests due by September 20. “This continues to be an unprecedented time, and the health and wellbeing of our Cleary community remains our top priority,” management noted in a memo to all employees. On top of its new vaccine requirement, Cleary will be putting off its full reopening until October 18 (its previous return-to-office date was September 13). Sources say that lawyers and staff will be expected to work in the office for three days each week.
A mandatory vaccination policy is being instituted at New York-based Davis & Gilbert, and according to chairman Ron Urbach, “Given the increased risk of infection from the Delta variant, we have determined that it would be unwise to set a specific return to office date at this time. For now, our current remote work policy will remain in effect.”
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Today, Sheppard Mullin announced that it would be postponing its planned return-to-office date of September 7, and will “announce a new date in the future with plenty of advance notice.” Until then, the firm will continue to operate under its previously announced policy for employees to “do your best” to come to the office. Those who do go to the office will not only be required to wear a mask and remain socially distanced, but starting on August 16, the firm will have a new vaccination mandate. “This rule is consistent with those adopted by dozens of other Am Law 100 firms, the U.S. military and many of our clients, with more every day,” chairman Guy Halgren wrote in a memo. “It keeps us all safer and gives those who are vaccinated greater comfort in coming to the office. As under our current rule, proof of that vaccination must have been uploaded to our database. Over 1360 of us have uploaded their records.”
Will your firm be changing its plans when it comes to vaccination for attorneys and staff thanks to the Delta variant? Please let us know.
(Flip to the following page to read the memos from Cleary Gottlieb and Sheppard Mullin.)
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 the office.
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.
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Staci 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.
