Covid cases may be picking up again, but the height of the pandemic is now behind us, and the powers that be at Biglaw firms across the country want their workforce to return to the office. At some firms, associates and partners alike have been somewhat laissez faire about hybrid work policies, but now, Biglaw firms are entering “put up or shut up mode,” and they’ll be pushing their return-to-office mandates — hard. And what will that mean?
Want that bonus? Get to the office. Want your partner draw? Get to the office. Some firms, of course, already have these policies in place, but now they’re really going to be enforced.
The American Lawyer has some additional details on Biglaw firms’ rush to get lawyers back to their real estate holdings:
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[Jeff] Lowe[,] [senior managing partner and market president for Washington, D.C., at CenterPeak], said he’s spoken with a number of firm chairs who’ve said “this is gonna be the year where we really put up or shut up.” That could mean withholding a portion or percentage of a partner’s draw or reducing bonus pool eligibility, he said.
“I think they’ve already told their people, ‘If you don’t show up, there’s going to be a penalty.’ And now is the time where they’re gonna have to actually enforce that penalty,” he said. “It’ll be interesting to see what happens, because they know they always run the risk of a partner with an essential practice saying, ‘To heck with you, I’m outta here.’ That can be a lot of money walking out the door because the person wasn’t coming downtown as many days as they’d like.”
These days, most Biglaw firms require three days in the office, but a little more than a handful of firms want their attorneys to work from the office at least four days each week (Davis Polk; Latham; Ropes & Gray; Simpson Thacher; Skadden; Vinson & Elkins; and Weil). Come 2025, or perhaps even sooner, leaders at many Biglaw firms may flex their power to demand more office attendance, joining the firms that already require more facetime. As noted by Lauren Drake, a partner at the legal recruiting firm Macrae, “Some firms are getting considerably more aggressive getting people back to the office, saying there could be an impact on performance reviews and bonuses, things like that.”
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‘Put Up or Shut Up’ in Office Attendance: Law Firm Leaders Still Hold the Cards [American Lawyer]
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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 X/Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.