Law firms enjoyed monster profits during the lockdown as attorneys adapted to working from home. After the storm passed, firms tried to reconcile a workforce that had grown to appreciate the flexibility of home work with the long-term leases entered before 2020.
While senior attorneys balked at being brought back to the office to put in face time when they knew their firms continued to thrive, partners and the younger classes worried about training and collaboration. Some firms reacted with paranoid back-to-the-office policies. Others embraced hybrid work and found that attorneys actually returned to the office of their own accord more than expected. Some firms chose three days in the office, while others chose four. Some opted for mandatory anchor days, others leaned into flexibility.
DLA Piper remained a holdout on office attendance… until now. And just for good measure, they’re micromanaging how attorneys work from home too!
The firm informed attorneys yesterday that it would start pushing attorneys back into the office:
For the past several years, the firm has embraced a policy of high performance flexibility, whereby lawyers have been expected to professionally manage their time between working in the office and remotely. To better advance collaboration, training, mentorship, and client service, the firm has updated its policy to reflect the expectations of lawyers in a more structured way.
Starting September 3, the firm’s Work Location Policy will go into effect, pursuant to which lawyers are encouraged to work from their designated firm office at least three business days per week.
This change unsettled some associates, who told ATL that firm leadership told them a year ago that the firm would never adopt a back-to-the-office requirement. And while the memo employs words like “encouraged” rather than “required,” it closes with some vague “or else” rhetoric.
Lawyers at all levels are expected to take the policy seriously and increase their office presence if they are not already working in the office three days each week. As stated in the policy, while the firm currently has chosen not to mandate precise schedules, the firm will consider a lawyer’s adherence to the policy as part [of] our overall evaluation of the lawyer’s future trajectory with the firm.
According to one tipster, the “encouraged” language might also reflect the firm’s inability to effectively house all its attorneys on the same day, with some locations having terminated, assigned, and sublet tons of office space based on the earlier policy.
Imagine buying a house knowing that the commute sucks but it’s manageable since you only need to make the trek a few times a month and then learning that you’ve got to show up at least 150 times a year to protect your career “trajectory.” It’s really not as easy to pull up stakes and move as it is for partners to willy-nilly change office policies.
Unsatisfied with irking associates with a new office policy, the firm decided to do a little micromanaging of how lawyers do their jobs from home:
When not working in an office. lawyers are expected to establish an appropriate work environment. This includes, but is not limited to, designating a work area free of noise, distraction, and other interferences. Individuals working remotely must have care arrangements for all dependents, as lawyers should not be providing child, elder or other care during working hours. Those working remotely are also expected to maintain a safe and healthy work environment.
Wildly patronizing.
Obviously you can’t do a full-time job while also working as a full-time caregiver. But also, trust them to figure all that out. These are the lawyers that managed to deliver a whopping 8.8 percent profit boost while everyone waited for a vaccine and no one needed to scold them for taking care of their kids back then. If they need to pick the kids up from school for a week while their babysitter has the flu or make lunch for gramps after he breaks his hip, that’s none of the firm’s business. Do something when the attorney starts turning in garbage work and otherwise let them navigate their work environment however they need to get the job done for the client.
Striking the right balance in the post-lockdown world isn’t easy. But to borrow from Kamala Harris, we are all burdened by what has been and exist in the context of all in which we live. It’s one thing to jump straight to a three-day policy and another to tell your team that there’s not going to be an office policy before pulling the rug out from under them. Maybe there’s good reason to think the old policy wasn’t ideal, but decisions were made and an abrupt about-face isn’t winning the firm any points with the people who’ve been busy turning the firm into a $3.8 billion enterprise.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
#Law #Firm #Calls #Attorneys #Office #Years #Letting #Folks #Work #Home
