Biglaw

Will Biglaw Firms Be Forced Into 2022 Office Reopenings?

Many firms are hoping to be back in the office by mid-fall, but that may not work out as planned.

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Will your law firm be reopening its offices in 2021? For the majority of firms, that’s certainly the hope, but given the fact that the pandemic has taken a turn for the worse in the U.S., those plans may have to be put on hold yet again.

This summer, when things were still looking up, many firms targeted post-Labor Day returns, expecting attorneys and staff to return to the office in some capacity on September 7 or September 8. At many firms, those dates were pushed back to September 21. Quite a few firms are holding fast to that late September date, while others have already moved their expected return date to October 21. On the flip side of the coin, some firms haven’t committed to a date at all, but have told employees that they’ll provide 30 days’ notice before setting a date. Scant few firms have already committed to keeping their offices closed for a full return until January 2022.

So, are these fall return dates unrealistic? Signs may be pointing to yes, depending on who you ask.

Baker Hostetler, for example, delayed its proposed September 8 office return, but has yet to set another proposed return date.  Here’s what the firm is thinking, as noted in the American Lawyer:

[Chairman Paul Schmidt] said if the firm wants to try another return, mid-to-late October or early November could still be plausible targets, “but it almost is a bit of a binary choice.”

“If you wait much longer, you run into Thanksgiving and the December holidays, with people in and out and around, and you just really wonder if it makes sense if you wait too long into the year,” Schmidt said. “We would be very disappointed if we don’t open in 2021, and we are still hopeful that we’ll be able to do that. But I think the window is pretty finite with us not coming back in September. It’s got to be sometime in the middle of the fall if we’d like to do that.”

Steven Di Fiore, chief operating officer of Epstein Becker & Green, said that the firm is hoping to return to the office on October 6. Am Law has the details:

He said October made sense as a target because it gave them a chance to assess school re-openings, and gave parents time to adjust to those routines.

“That’s one of the things that keeps some away from the office. So we already thought that was a nice cushion of time to have people come in, and it looks like a lot of other firms are moving to October,” he said. “But you don’t know what’s going to come next. But so far, so good.”

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Bill Bice, CEO of nQ Zebraworks, said that most firms he’s spoken with have said that their mid-fall return dates are likely to be pused back. In the alternative, if those dates remain in place, firms will probably alter their in-office expectations, requiring less face time.

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.

With Office Returns Delayed, Law Firms May Not Get Back Till 2022 [American Lawyer]

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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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