Top Biglaw Firm Plans Partial November Return, But Adds In Flexibility For Parents Of Children Too Young For Vaccination

The firm continues to focus on the health and safety of its lawyers and staff.

The decision to bring lawyers and staff back to the office is weighing heavily on the hearts and minds of law firm leaders. After all, many firms have announced return dates only to have to postpone them and later reschedule them again. While some have settled on forgoing 2021 reopenings at all, others have simply refrained from announcing specific return dates. Others still have opted to begin the next phase of their returns in November, rather than in October as originally planned.

One of those firms is Debevoise & Plimpton, which brought in $1,224,942,000 gross revenue in 2020, placing it at No. 31 on the most recent Am Law 100 ranking. The firm announced in August that starting on October 11, it would require lawyers (and “some professional staff”) to work from the office one to two days each week, and starting on November 8, they will be required to work at least two-thirds of their time from the office. Those plans have now changed.

In a memo sent late last week, presiding partner Michael Blair informed all U.S. and European employees that on November 8, the firm will “strongly encourage” their return to their respective offices. Now, what does that mean at Debevoise? Here’s a relevant excerpt from the memo:

  • From now through November 7, our offices continue to be available as needed, on a completely voluntary basis.
  • From November 8 through January 7, we strongly encourage everyone to come into the office 1-2 days per week, initially to reacquaint yourselves with the office and your commute, and then to re-establish connections and new working habits.

Personnel have about a month to ramp up to their one-to-two day office returns, and this relatively relaxed expectation will continue through the start of the new year. Like several other firms have announced, Debeboise is also doing all-remote weeks for the holidays (Thanksgiving week, and the last two weeks of 2021). Starting on January 10, lawyers and staff will be expected to work at least two-thirds of their time from the office.

For those worried about spending that much time in the office during the pandemic, the firm is offering additional flexibility for the following groups:

  • Parents of children who are too young to be vaccinated;
  • Individuals living with an elderly person or someone who is immunocompromised; and
  • Those who have moved outside their office location and need some extra time to return.

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“[T]he health and safety of our people is our foremost priority,” Blair noted. “All personnel must comply with local office vaccine policies – which now includes being fully vaccinated in order to enter our offices where that is permitted….” The firm will also continue to abide by public health policy for masking.

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 memo from Debevoise.)

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.