{"id":99298,"date":"2025-01-06T12:01:26","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T20:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/01\/06\/biglaw-firm-breaks-with-trend-requires-associates-to-be-in-office-5-days-a-week\/"},"modified":"2025-01-06T12:01:26","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T20:01:26","slug":"biglaw-firm-breaks-with-trend-requires-associates-to-be-in-office-5-days-a-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/01\/06\/biglaw-firm-breaks-with-trend-requires-associates-to-be-in-office-5-days-a-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Biglaw Firm Breaks With Trend, Requires Associates To Be In Office 5 Days A Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Associates are reportedly ‘furious.’
\nThe post Biglaw Firm Breaks With Trend, Requires Associates To Be In Office 5 Days A Week appeared first on Above the Law.<\/p>\n

\"backPost-pandemic (I guess I should specify the COVID pandemic, since we seem to be gearing up for the next (avian flu) one), Biglaw firms have been balancing their in-office needs with those of associates. Because, while associates have enjoyed<\/a> the flexibility of working from home in a hybrid schedule, firms have seen a dip in associates\u2019 work product<\/a> that they attribute to working from home. So, firms are trying to thread the needle, launching hybrid work schedules<\/a> that generally require associates to be in the office three to four days a week. (Often leaning on technology<\/a> and levying real consequences<\/a> to ensure compliance.)<\/p>\n

But Sullivan & Cromwell is bucking that trend. The firm recently announced a full-time (five days a week) in-office policy.<\/p>\n

As Reddit user lawschlthrowaway notes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

S&C moves to full RTO, lawyers expected to be in office 5x a week
Other details of the new policy:<\/p>\n

-Remote work generally only permitted if an associate is eligible to adopt a flexible-time schedule<\/p>\n

-Managing partner approval is needed for remote work arrangements. Max of 1x per week for a maximum of 6 months.<\/p>\n

-Junior lawyers \u201cgenerally will not be authorized to work remotely\u201d<\/p>\n

-Compensation and vacation time will be docked if you work a number of client hours less than a full-time schedule while working remotely<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Even though other firms have been successful with the honey over vinegar<\/a> method of getting folks back to the office, S&C seems to be going full hog with the command and control approach. As a tipster told Above the Law, \u201cAssociates are furious, many are looking into quitting. Morale could not be worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your firm doing about office attendance? Please email us<\/a> (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

\n

\"KathrynKathryn 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 @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Associates are reportedly ‘furious.’ The post Biglaw Firm Breaks With Trend, Requires Associates To Be In Office 5 Days A Week appeared first on Above the Law. Post-pandemic (I guess I should specify the COVID pandemic, since we seem to be gearing up for the next (avian flu) one), Biglaw firms have been balancing their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":99299,"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":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law","category-legal_matters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-647692164-scaled-t17gJM.jpeg?fit=2560%2C2224&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99298","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"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}