{"id":130779,"date":"2025-08-18T14:53:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T22:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/08\/18\/biglaw-firms-continue-to-depend-on-attendance-mandates-and-lawyers-who-dont-abide-are-getting-punished\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T14:53:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T22:53:00","slug":"biglaw-firms-continue-to-depend-on-attendance-mandates-and-lawyers-who-dont-abide-are-getting-punished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/08\/18\/biglaw-firms-continue-to-depend-on-attendance-mandates-and-lawyers-who-dont-abide-are-getting-punished\/","title":{"rendered":"Biglaw Firms Continue To Depend On Attendance Mandates, And Lawyers Who Don\u2019t Abide Are Getting Punished"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Biglaw firms continue to usher attorneys back to the office in the wake of the pandemic, hybrid work policies still remain in effect in some way, shape, or form, with fully remote policies having \u201cnearly disappeared.\u201d\u00a0But what do those hybrid policies look like? <\/p>\n

According to the latest study by Savills Research and Data Services based on press releases, websites, media mentions, and job postings from 177 of the Am Law 200, more than half of those firms (55.9%) are using a flexible hybrid policy and 39.5% use a fixed hybrid policy. Only 4% of those firms are using an office-first policy, and just 0.6% of firms are using a remote-first policy. The American Lawyer<\/a> has additional details:<\/p>\n

\n

A total of 82% of the firms require specific days in the office, with nearly half of them requiring three days in the office, a number that\u2019s been the standard for several years. A survey by Savills Legal Tenant Practice Group in early 2023\u00a0found<\/a>\u00a0that three days a week in the office, either mandated or encouraged, was the norm at Am Law 100 firms.<\/p>\n

In the new study, Savills found that only 1.3% of the firms that mandated attendance on specific days asked for one day a week, while 7.7% required attendance five days a week.<\/p>\n

At the other 18% of firms, the firms expected lawyers in the office for a range of days, such as one to two, or three to five.<\/p>\n

Tuesday through Thursday in the office is most common.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While three days is the norm, we know of quite a few that are now requiring four days in the office, including the likes of\u00a0Davis Polk<\/a>;\u00a0Latham<\/a>;\u00a0Paul Weiss<\/a>;\u00a0Ropes & Gray<\/a>;\u00a0Simpson Thacher<\/a>;\u00a0Skadden<\/a>;\u00a0Vinson & Elkins<\/a>;\u00a0Weil Gotshal<\/a>;\u00a0WilmerHale<\/a>;\u00a0White & Case<\/a>;\u00a0Sidley<\/a>;\u00a0Hogan Lovells<\/a>;\u00a0A&O Shearman<\/a>; and Covington<\/a>.\u00a0Sullivan & Cromwell<\/a>\u00a0has taken its attendance policy one step further, requiring attorneys to work from the office five days each week.<\/p>\n

Return-to-office mandates continue to evolve, and as the Savills study notes, \u201c[t]his may include more defined schedules, anchor days and stronger policy enforcement.\u201d Tom Fulcher, chair of the Legal Tenant Practice Group at Savills, said, \u201cIt just feels like there\u2019s going to be a gradual move toward more and more days, more and more obligations to be in the office.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that 17% of firms are punishing attorneys who don\u2019t adhere to attendance mandates, and those \u201cconsequences\u201d include but are not limited to \u201cpaid time off or promotions, or eliminating the lawyer\u2019s opportunity to work remotely.\u201d Bonuses are specifically targeted at more than 60% of the firms that are disciplining lawyers for not coming to the office.<\/p>\n

What does the future of in-person attendance look like at your law firm? Stay tuned, because things are changing by the day.<\/p>\n

As soon as you find out about office attendance plans at your firm, please\u00a0email us<\/a>\u00a0(subject line: \u201c[Firm Name] Office Reopening\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

Hybrid Work Policies Still Dominate at Am Law 200 Firms<\/a> [American Lawyer]<\/p>\n

\n
\"Staci
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Threads<\/a>,\u00a0or connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Biglaw Firms Continue To Depend On Attendance Mandates, And Lawyers Who Don\u2019t Abide Are Getting Punished<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

While Biglaw firms continue to usher attorneys back to the office in the wake of the pandemic, hybrid work policies still remain in effect in some way, shape, or form, with fully remote policies having \u201cnearly disappeared.\u201d\u00a0But what do those hybrid policies look like? <\/p>\n

According to the latest study by Savills Research and Data Services based on press releases, websites, media mentions, and job postings from 177 of the Am Law 200, more than half of those firms (55.9%) are using a flexible hybrid policy and 39.5% use a fixed hybrid policy. Only 4% of those firms are using an office-first policy, and just 0.6% of firms are using a remote-first policy. The American Lawyer<\/a> has additional details:<\/p>\n

\n

A total of 82% of the firms require specific days in the office, with nearly half of them requiring three days in the office, a number that\u2019s been the standard for several years. A survey by Savills Legal Tenant Practice Group in early 2023\u00a0found<\/a>\u00a0that three days a week in the office, either mandated or encouraged, was the norm at Am Law 100 firms.<\/p>\n

In the new study, Savills found that only 1.3% of the firms that mandated attendance on specific days asked for one day a week, while 7.7% required attendance five days a week.<\/p>\n

At the other 18% of firms, the firms expected lawyers in the office for a range of days, such as one to two, or three to five.<\/p>\n

Tuesday through Thursday in the office is most common.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While three days is the norm, we know of quite a few that are now requiring four days in the office, including the likes of\u00a0Davis Polk<\/a>;\u00a0Latham<\/a>;\u00a0Paul Weiss<\/a>;\u00a0Ropes & Gray<\/a>;\u00a0Simpson Thacher<\/a>;\u00a0Skadden<\/a>;\u00a0Vinson & Elkins<\/a>;\u00a0Weil Gotshal<\/a>;\u00a0WilmerHale<\/a>;\u00a0White & Case<\/a>;\u00a0Sidley<\/a>;\u00a0Hogan Lovells<\/a>;\u00a0A&O Shearman<\/a>; and Covington<\/a>.\u00a0Sullivan & Cromwell<\/a>\u00a0has taken its attendance policy one step further, requiring attorneys to work from the office five days each week.<\/p>\n

Return-to-office mandates continue to evolve, and as the Savills study notes, \u201c[t]his may include more defined schedules, anchor days and stronger policy enforcement.\u201d Tom Fulcher, chair of the Legal Tenant Practice Group at Savills, said, \u201cIt just feels like there\u2019s going to be a gradual move toward more and more days, more and more obligations to be in the office.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that 17% of firms are punishing attorneys who don\u2019t adhere to attendance mandates, and those \u201cconsequences\u201d include but are not limited to \u201cpaid time off or promotions, or eliminating the lawyer\u2019s opportunity to work remotely.\u201d Bonuses are specifically targeted at more than 60% of the firms that are disciplining lawyers for not coming to the office.<\/p>\n

What does the future of in-person attendance look like at your law firm? Stay tuned, because things are changing by the day.<\/p>\n

As soon as you find out about office attendance plans at your firm, please\u00a0email us<\/a>\u00a0(subject line: \u201c[Firm Name] Office Reopening\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

Hybrid Work Policies Still Dominate at Am Law 200 Firms<\/a> [American Lawyer]<\/p>\n

\n
\"Staci
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Threads<\/a>,\u00a0or connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While Biglaw firms continue to usher attorneys back to the office in the wake of the pandemic, hybrid work policies still remain in effect in some way, shape, or form, with fully remote policies having \u201cnearly disappeared.\u201d\u00a0But what do those hybrid policies look like? According to the latest study by Savills Research and Data Services […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":130780,"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-130779","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\/08\/Staci-Zaretsky-lGs2sB.jpg?fit=150%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130779","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=130779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}