Biglaw

Top Biglaw Firm Plans To Bring Associates Back To The Office 1-2 Days Per Week, Starting In November

The firm will continue to allow remote flexibility through the end of the year.

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Biglaw firms’ thoughts on the return to the office in our “post”-pandemic world continue to evolve. While some firms have simply canceled previously scheduled reopenings without announcing a future target date, with the promise of offering 30 days’ notice if a new date should be chosen, others have canceled their plans for 2021 reopenings entirely. Others still seem to have settled on November as the time to invite employees back to the office.

The latest firm to do so is Ropes & Gray, a firm ranked at No. 11 on the most recent Am Law 100, with $2,192,810,000 gross revenue in 2020. Right now, Ropes is still within Phase 1 of its reopening plan (i.e., permissive office use), and had most recently planned to move to Phase 2, a broader reopening for all personnel, on October 18, a bit later than originally imagined. That was delayed, and now the firm is moving to its next return-to-office phase on November 8.

What does that mean for personnel at the firm? Here’s an excerpt from a memo sent earlier this week (emphasis added):

[I]n Phase 2 we would like lawyers to join us back in the office at least one or two days per week. We anticipate this phase to last through the end of the year. …

We want to be clear that lawyers coming in more frequently is our hope, with each lawyer’s presence determined by their comfort level. And while many of you have already begun to come in more often, we know that some of you face particular health and safety issues, whether for yourself or for people within your care. We also recognize the increased challenges of transitioning back to more time in the office — the added commute, the disruption to recent routines and new scheduling issues. As always, we will be understanding and supportive.

A source tells us that the firm has separately announced that the week of Thanksgiving and the last two weeks of December will be fully remote so that employees can celebrate the holidays with their friends and family. Also of note is the fact that the firm will continue to offer free food for all through the end of 2021.

Remember that Ropes & Gray was one of the first firms to put an end to the five-day, in-office workweek with its plans for lawyers to spend three days per week in the office as part of its full reopening (which was originally slated for November when announced in May). Hopefully that’s still the plan going forward in 2022.

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.

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(Flip the page to read the memo from Ropes & Gray.)

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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