Another Biglaw Firm Moves To A 4-Day In-Office Schedule

Four days in-office is slowly building momentum.

back to office 4 day work weekBiglaw continues to sort itself into the firms that are mandating a strict back-to-the-office policy and those that are not. But with Skadden, Davis Polk, Weil Gotshal, and Ropes & Gray all coming out with four day in the office mandates, we’re into full-blown Biglaw trend category now. And, well, with so many big-name firms moving to this schedule, it provides plenty of cover for firms that wish to follow suit. Enter Vinson & Elkins. The firm, which made $934,700,000 in gross revenue last year, making it 57th on the Am Law 100, announced today they’re joining the four-day in-office club.

From the executive committee’s email to all attorneys and business professionals:

Over the past two years, as we emerged from the pandemic, we have worked to balance the dual goals of maximizing our time together in the office while also embracing remote flexibility. In recent months, the legal and professional services market has shifted with a growing number of firms – as well as clients – moving to a four-day model. We also continue to hear from many of you that some of the connectivity that we highly value is jeopardized when a substantial number of our people are away from the office on any given day. As has always been the case, we support remote flexibility when the situation calls for it and ask that you use your best judgment in consultation with your team.

The turn around to this new normal will be fairly fast, as the new policy will take effect September 11th.

There will still be some manner of flexibility in V&E schedules, as folks will be able to pick whether Monday or Friday is their work from home day, but Tuesday through Thursday will be all hands on deck.

The full email is available on the next page.

How is your firm mandating (or not) in-office attendance? As soon as you find out about office attendance plans at your firm, please email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Office Reopening”) or text us at (646) 820-8477. We always keep our sources on stories anonymous. There’s 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.

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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 @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.

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