Biglaw

Top Biglaw Firm Pulls The Plug On September Return To Office Due To Delta Variant

Another one bites the dust. Will attorneys be working from home until 2022?

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Many Biglaw firms are still intending to reopen their offices to all attorneys and staff members later this month. Earlier this week, we mentioned that these early fall return dates may be a tad unrealistic considering the far-ranging spread of the Delta variant. After all, quite a few firms have already pushed back their return-to-office dates to late October, and others still won’t expect employees back in the office until January 2022.

Well, we hate to say we told you so, but… yet another firm has decided to postpone its plans to go back to the office in September.

Reed Smith — which brought in $1,310,596,000 gross revenue in 2020, placing it at #26 in the Am Law 100 — will no longer be expecting to see its employees in the office next week. Here’s a statement we received from a firm spokesperson:

Last month, Reed Smith announced that it is postponing the “full reopening” of its U.S. offices, which had been set for September 13, because of the surge in COVID cases driven by the Delta variant. Lawyers and most professional staff, those with hybrid and fully flexible work status, can continue to work remotely until further notice. Essential personnel will continue to work from the office, adhering to all safety protocols.

The firm’s U.S. offices remain open, and fully vaccinated personnel can work on-site if they so choose. Office access is limited to fully vaccinated personnel, and we continue to ensure that our people and visitors comply with all health and safety measures. We will stay in close communication with our people about reopening plans and will continue to prioritize the health and safety of all.

Will Reed Smith join the firms that are opting to open in October, or will it forgo 2021 return altogether? We suppose we’ll have to wait and see.

Help us help you. Let us know what your firm is doing to protect employees and adjust to the new normal during this unprecedented moment in time.

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 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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