Biglaw

Elite Firm Sets 2022 Office Return Date Due To Delta Variant

Yet another firm has decided to forgo a full reopening in 2021.

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After thousands upon thousands of lawyers and staff were forced from their offices in 2020 due to the pandemic, the final quarter of 2021 was supposed to be Biglaw’s big comeback. Unfortunately, those carefully strategized return-to-office plans were no match for COVID’s Delta variant. Law firms across the country now seem to realize that the coronavirus crisis is far from over, and that reopening their offices en masse may be ill advised.

While some firms are holding out hope for a 2021 return (and quite a few have honored their original reopening dates), others are putting the kibosh on returning this year at all. Which firm is the latest to announce a 2022 reopening?

That would be Clifford Chance. The firm had planned to return to an office-based working environment starting on September 13, with up to two remote days each week for both attorneys and business professionals. All employees were required to be vaccinated by that date as well. The firm then delayed its plans due to the super-infectious Delta variant, and a full reopening was to occur sometime during the week of October 25. Like all plans during COVID times, that changed quickly.

Yesterday afternoon, this brief note was sent to all personnel working in Clifford Chance’s Americas offices (emphasis added):

The Americas Management Committee met to discuss our planned return to office-based working the week of October 25th. We carefully considered the situations in NY, São Paulo and Washington, DC and decided to defer our return to formal office-based working, setting a target return date for the week of January 10th. If that date changes (including an earlier date should things improve in a meaningful way), we will provide you with at least 30 days’ notice. Our number one priority is your health and well-being and we will continue to evaluate our return plans as new information becomes available.

Our region’s offices continue to be open on a voluntary basis with an increasing number of colleagues coming in each week.

Clifford Chance likes to keep things short and sweet, and the firm’s focus continues to be on the health and safety of its employees, from lawyers to staff members.

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.

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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.

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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