Top 50 Biglaw Firm Cracking Down On In-Office Attendance

// The aftereffects of the Covid pandemic can still be seen in Biglaw. Gone is the necessity of in-office attendance in order to bill, bill, bill. But firms would still like its attorneys to be in the office some of the time — firm leaders have repeated said they see a benefit in associate development when folks are in the office. However, striking that the balance of in-office and work-from-home time continues to be a challenge.

Arnold & Porter, a firm ranked #49 on the most recent AmLaw list, is definitely feeling those growing pains. The firm has settled on a 50% in-office policy, but actually getting attorneys to stick to that policy has been a real issue. According to insiders at the firm, leadership did a spot check to assess compliance with the policy, and found ~40% of attorneys (partners, counsel, attorneys, senior attorneys, associates, and senior associates) are in the office less than 25% of the time.

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So now they’re pulling out the big guns to get those butts in the office. Today the firm rolled out their plan to keep attorneys on the straight and narrow. And they’re going to drop hammer if folks don’t comply. Tipsters say the firm will “email each attorney a monthly report tracking their individual in-office attendance, with noncompliance leading to check-ins, warnings from practice group leaders / firm leadership, and potentially impacted bonus awards, holds on bi-weekly paychecks, and/or an increased in-office requirement for noncompliant attorneys, with exceptions for vacations, trial, or leave.”

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Below you can see the slide firm leadership shared on the  new program.

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A&P isn’t the first firm to get serious about coming into the office, but such punitive measures are far from the industry standard. Above the Law will continue to monitor how in-office policies are being handled in the Biglaw trenches.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].

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Arnold & Porter, Biglaw, Technology, Work From Home Policies