Biglaw

Biglaw Firm Pitches Full Reopening In January 2022, Encourages In-Person Office Work Through Year-End

Plus, is a raise in store for associates at the firm?

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Another day, another Biglaw firm that won’t be fully reopening its doors until next year thanks to COVID-19.

For more than 18 months now, associates and staff members at large law firms have been working remotely due to the coronavirus crisis. All the while, law firm leaders’ return-to-office plans have been delayed, postponed, and quashed due to the continually evolving coronavirus crisis. What’s a firm to do in unprecedented times like these?

At BakerHostetler, the answer is a full reopening on January 4.

Paul M. Schmidt, the firm’s chairman, has been vocal about law firm reopenings in our “post”-pandemic world. BakerHostetler was supposed to officially reopen on September 8, but those plans were scrapped because of the Delta variant. The firm had not announced a new reopening date until late last week.

“How long can we wait ‘til we start doing irreparable harm to your culture, to training, to all those value propositions from in-person interaction?” Schmidt wondered in September during an interview with Bloomberg Law. “Once you get past the beginning of November, you’re looking at Thanksgiving, and then the December holidays. If you miss that window, you’re probably talking about sometime early in 2022, which is a really daunting thing to think about.”

Rather than fully missing that window, starting this week, BakerHostetler is encouraging all employees to work in its offices on Wednesdays and Thursdays through the end of 2021.

In addition to its formal reopening plans, another thing that may be brewing at BakerHostetler is a salary increase. As has been claimed on Instagram, Twitter, and Fishbowl, the firm will reportedly be giving associates 10% bumps across the board as of December 15. Sources say the firm previously boosted only first-year compensation to the new Davis Polk scale. Is a cash influx on the horizon for other class years at the firm? We’ve reached out to BakerHostetler for comment. If and when we receive word back, we will provide an update here.

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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.

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.

BakerHostetler Delays Office Return to 2022, Pushes Hybrid Plan [Bloomberg Law]

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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