Biglaw

Yet Another Biglaw Firm Delays Its Reopening Without Announcing A New Return Date

It's looking more and more like the firms reopening in 2021 will be few and far between.

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One by one, firms both small and large have been forced to revise their return-to-office plans due to COVID-19’s hyper-contagious Delta variant. Many firms that once hoped to host reopenings en masse post-Labor Day found themselves rolling those plans back to an October date. Now, with October nearly here, those plans are being changed once again, and formal 2021 reopening dates are simply not being announced.

Loeb & Loeb, ranked 99th in the most recent Am Law 100, with $385,271,000 gross revenue in 2020, is the latest firm to follow this model. The firm’s original reopening plan was quite accomodating for associates and staff, recognizing that flexibility is key to work/life balance. The firm planned to begin the second phase of its return on October 18 (after already pushing those plans back from just after Labor Day), and now plans for phase two are being scrapped once again.

In a memo sent on Friday by Kenneth Florin, the firm’s chair, informed all employees about Loeb’s decision (emphasis added):

As you know, we had hoped to begin Phase 2 of our reintegration plan on Monday, October 18. Unfortunately, given the continued uncertainty created most acutely by the Delta variant, we have decided to postpone our more robust return to the office.

Knowing exactly when we can bring everyone back together safely and comfortably in our new reality remains incredibly difficult. It depends on many factors, including whether we see another surge in cases in the coming months, if schools remain open, or, on the positive side, if we begin to see a sustained decline in rates of infection. These and other developments are incredibly difficult to predict, so, at this time, we are not setting a new return to office date. We do, however, pledge to provide you with at least three weeks’ advance notice of our planned return date once it is determined so that you all have time to make any necessary arrangements for family or personal responsibilities.

“The pandemic has kept us apart for much longer than any of us expected,” Florin continued, “but continuing to support one another despite this distance will fortify our bonds so that, when we do eventually come back together in our hybrid working environment, we will be ready to move forward with a common purpose.”

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.

(Flip the page to read the memos from Loeb & Loeb.)

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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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