Work Schedule:<\/strong> As a reminder, Firm Policy on in-office attendance is Tuesday through Thursday each week. For the Associate Review, please provide a general description concerning your in-office attendance during the past review period so that the Committee can consider this information when reviewing any in-office data reports and information.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Back in 2022, Kirkland rolled out their three days-a-week mandate<\/a>, but in 2025, more and more firms are pushing for associates to be in the office four <\/a>or even five days a week<\/a>. Now that the firm is asking questions about attendance, tipsters are wondering exactly what that is foreshadowing. As a insider told Above the Law, \u201cFor the first time, they are now asking about in office attendance which seems to be the initial step to demanding more in office attendance.\u201d<\/p>\n But, of course, this could be a prequel to something even more punitive. While it\u2019s far from the industry norm, several firms<\/a> have threatened<\/a> (or even gone through <\/a>with) docking associate bonuses if they flout the in-office requirements.<\/p>\n \u2026Or maybe the firm is just trying to take associates\u2019 temperature and grab data on how the policy is working out. That\u2019s a pretty Pollyanna take, but it COULD be true. <\/p>\n If your firm makes any changes to their office attendance plans at your firm, please\u00a0email us<\/a>\u00a0(subject line: \u201c[Firm Name] Office Attendance\u201d) or text us at (646) 820-8477. We always keep our sources on stories anonymous. There\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n The post Kirkland Asks Associates Suspicious Question That Has Folks Wondering<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n Big changes rarely happen quickly at Biglaw firms. Even before the rank-and-file associates catch wind of anything, there\u2019s usually much discussion and analysis going on at the management level. So when the world\u2019s richest law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, made a change to standard review assessments, it got tongues wagging.<\/p>\n Kirkland recently sent out their associate review questionnaires. And tipsters at the firm noticed a new addition to this year\u2019s form, which asked:<\/p>\n Work Schedule:<\/strong> As a reminder, Firm Policy on in-office attendance is Tuesday through Thursday each week. For the Associate Review, please provide a general description concerning your in-office attendance during the past review period so that the Committee can consider this information when reviewing any in-office data reports and information.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Back in 2022, Kirkland rolled out their three days-a-week mandate<\/a>, but in 2025, more and more firms are pushing for associates to be in the office four <\/a>or even five days a week<\/a>. Now that the firm is asking questions about attendance, tipsters are wondering exactly what that is foreshadowing. As a insider told Above the Law, \u201cFor the first time, they are now asking about in office attendance which seems to be the initial step to demanding more in office attendance.\u201d<\/p>\n But, of course, this could be a prequel to something even more punitive. While it\u2019s far from the industry norm, several firms<\/a> have threatened<\/a> (or even gone through <\/a>with) docking associate bonuses if they flout the in-office requirements.<\/p>\n \u2026Or maybe the firm is just trying to take associates\u2019 temperature and grab data on how the policy is working out. That\u2019s a pretty Pollyanna take, but it COULD be true. <\/p>\n If your firm makes any changes to their office attendance plans at your firm, please\u00a0email us<\/a>\u00a0(subject line: \u201c[Firm Name] Office Attendance\u201d) or text us at (646) 820-8477. We always keep our sources on stories anonymous. There\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n The post Kirkland Asks Associates Suspicious Question That Has Folks Wondering<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Big changes rarely happen quickly at Biglaw firms. Even before the rank-and-file associates catch wind of anything, there\u2019s usually much discussion and analysis going on at the management level. So when the world\u2019s richest law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, made a change to standard review assessments, it got tongues wagging. Kirkland recently sent out their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":126653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-DMiVi6.jpeg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/06\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568.jpg?resize=174%2C160&ssl=1\" "\\"\\"")
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n
\nKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n