Hybrid Work Policies

For Biglaw firms, four days spent working in the office is a trend that's slowly building momentum.

A fuller return to the office may soon be coming down the line, and associates should prepare themselves ahead of time.

Is hoteling the way of the future for Biglaw firms? Only time will tell, but at Quinn Emanuel, some lawyers will say adios to their own offices.

Those who go to the office regularly will receive more work than those who don't. Ouch!

More face time means more candidates willing to walk away from a job.

Business leaders have even asked their remote GCs to move to live closer to the office.

In our latest chat, we discuss Biglaw strip club outings, Jeff Clark taking time away from his indictment to be an idiot online, and associates unhappy with a law firm's office tracker.

Just don't force it upon them -- because lawyers really don't like that.

Times change, and the profession needs to be able to change with these times.

Just look at it as a better way to use your otherwise empty office space.

For most associates, the choice is easy.

This really isn't as bad as it seems.

It turns out Gen Z wants to be in the office for more human interaction and mentoring. Who knew?

Some Biglaw firms think the job market gives them leverage to mandate in-office work. The data says they're very wrong.

So much for those attendance mandates.

* Fifth Circuit judges anoint themselves pharmaceutical scientists to determine that the FDA probably didn’t understand mifepristone when its scientists exercised their statutory and regulatory authority. So now judges are historians, neurologists, and drug scientists. Yale and Harvard JDs really prepare you to be jackasses of all trades! [Reuters]

* Speaking of judges acting as neurologists, the Federal Circuit backtracked to avoid that charge and cited Judge Pauline Newman’s reticence to hand over medical records of a cardiac event as the key justification to ban her from the court. Which fails their own twisted rationale since a risk of heart attack has no bearing on a judge’s faculties. But in any event, they’re cardiologists now, too. [Law360]

* It took a matter of hours for Trump supporters to publicly circulate the names and addresses of Georgia grand jurors. [NBC]

* By nixing student loan forgiveness, the Supreme Court likely also jacked the market by robbing it of 401(k) investment. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Law firms are generally uninterested in a fully remote workforce — which is understandable in some practice areas. But somehow this is going to get conflated with hybrid work models and some dumb firm is going to think it has cover to fully end working from home — to the delight of the firms looking to poach. [American Lawyer]

* Fox News needs a new CLO after the last one presided over the company accumulating upwards of a billion in liability. Who would want this job? [Corporate Counsel]

* Freshfields managing partner races in FIA bronze level events in his spare time. [LegalCheek]

Sorry, but the 'modern law firm workplace' is hybrid, without this forced attendance nonsense.

Its meaning seems to change based on how much control the firm wants to exert over its attorneys.

* Keep track of who’s who in the latest indictment. [Politico]

* Meanwhile, Abbe Lowell and Winston & Strawn have stepped up their collective role in the Hunter Biden case, arguing that the original plea agreement included binding government promises that didn’t evaporate just because the judge rejected the deal. [Law360]

* CFPB going after data brokers selling people’s personal data. Yet again, the government agency making the most direct, tangible impact for people is the one that still worries that every election might be its last. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Justice Department urges Supreme Court to deal with unconstitutional social media laws out of Texas and Florida. [Reuters]

* Has “flexibility” lost all meaning when it comes to law firm office scheduling? No. Just because some law firms try to engage in flexibility newspeak, doesn’t actually change its meaning. [American Lawyer]

* AI may not be ready to replace lawyers, but the California Innocence Project is leveraging the tool to assist in pursuit of justice. [ABA Journal]

* London Kirkland team headed to Paul Weiss resigned on a Sunday in a power move. [LegalCheek]

But attendance will be taken into account for performance reviews. Yikes....