Biglaw

Top 50 Biglaw Firm Increases Its Office Attendance Requirement To Four Days — Just For Junior Associates

Don't worry, partners will now have to spend four days at the office each week as well.

By Staci Zaretsky on November 05, 2025 11:27 am

The push to bring associates back into the office four days a week is accelerating at lightning speed, leaving firms scrambling to keep pace. These attendance mandates have typically applied firmwide, but one firm has taken the next step in the return-to-office race by increasing its attendance requirements specifically for junior associates.

Dechert — a firm that brought in $1,510,775,000  gross revenue in 2024, putting it at No. 36 on the Am Law 100 — recently announced that beginning on February 2, all rising second-year attorneys as well as fall associates, incoming trainees must work from the office four days each week. All business services professionals must also follow the firm’s new four-day attendance mandate. Dechert partners are also expected to work from the office four days each week, if only to train the junior associates who are having this facetime requirement foisted upon them. Elder attorneys — e.g., rising third-year associates and higher, as well as all counsel — are expected to work from the office three days each week. The policy will be enforced on a worldwide basis. The Legal Intelligencer has additional details:

The firm says that it hopes all affected employees will see the value in working out of an office to help add energy to teams, foster greater collaboration and improve morale and success.

“We continue to believe that what makes Dechert a successful firm and a great place to work is our people, and there is no substitute for working together in person,” Dechert Co-Chairs David Forti and Mark Thierfelder said in a joint statement. “Speaking face-to-face with another person provides more context and nuance than through a screen. When together in person, we collaborate better, our junior team members benefit more from coaching, and we can more effectively respond to client needs.”

Quite a few Biglaw firms are now requiring four days in the office firmwide, including the likes of A&O Shearman; Cooley; Covington; Davis Polk; DLA Piper (corporate associates); Goodwin; Hogan Lovells; Latham; Paul Weiss; Ropes & Gray; Sidley; Simpson Thacher; Skadden; Vinson & Elkins; Weil Gotshal; WilmerHale; and White & Case. Sullivan & Cromwell has taken its attendance policy one step further, requiring attorneys to work from the office five days each week.

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.

Dechert Moves to 4-Day In-Office Policy for Business Service Professionals, Jr. Associates [Legal Intelligencer]

Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of 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 Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.