This Biglaw Firm Won't Be Moving To A 4-Day In-Office Attendance Policy -- Yet
But attendance will be taken into account for performance reviews. Yikes....
The four-day in-office workweek may be trending among the some of the most successful Biglaw firms in the country — we’re talking firms like Skadden, Davis Polk, Weil Gotshal, Ropes & Gray, and Vinson & Elkins — but not all of them have been convinced to make the move… at least not yet.
Sources tell us that Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft — a firm that brought in $544,832,000 gross revenue in 2022, putting it in 84th place in the most recent Am Law 100 — recently sent out a firmwide memo concerning its attendance policies, and it looks like the firm won’t be forcing its employees back to the office for four days each week — at least not “at this time.” Here’s an excerpt from the memo (available on the next page):
Over the last few weeks, we have been assessing our in-office attendance policy and contemplating the benefits of transitioning to a 4-day in office schedule. After careful consideration, we have decided not to increase to 4 days at this time. We will continue with our current 3-day schedule, with Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, being the required days in office.
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Partners at the firm were reportedly gung-ho about moving to a four-day in-office week, but with the three-day policy still in place, sources say partners are not-so gently “reminding us to remind our ‘friends’ in other offices to go in or we’ll move to a four-day workweek.”
Unfortunately, those three in-office days at CWT will come at a price. It seems the firm will now be tracking attendance and using it as part of performance evaluations. From the memo:
In order for this 3-day in office schedule to be successful and to maximize the benefits of the in-person work experience, we need your full compliance. Beginning in September, we will be reporting attendance regularly to practice group chairs and administrative department heads. Your compliance with our office attendance policy will be taken into consideration as part of your performance evaluation. We recognize that some flexibility may be needed, as has always been the case. However, absent an occasional exception, employee attendance will be expected on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
There seems to be some confusion as to how compliance with CWT’s attendance policy will be used in performance reviews. “Will it affect our bonuses or what? How will it be measured?” one source wonders. “How will I know if they correctly logged me in while I’m at the office?”
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Associates at the firm are concerned about their bonuses, but we’re equally as concerned that noncompliance with the firm’s attendance policy may lead to layoffs. Let’s hope that it doesn’t come to that.
(Flip to the next page to read the Cadwalader memo in full.)
How is your firm mandating (or not) in-office attendance? As soon as you find out about office attendance plans 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 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 and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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