As the Covid-19 pandemic becomes an endemic, masks and sanitizing stations aren’t the only things disappearing from law firms and corporations. The flexibility to work from home (WFH) is also diminishing as return-to-office (RTO) policies requiring in-office days increase, according to a recent Bloomberg Law survey.
At the beginning of 2023, Bloomberg Law asked 868 attorneys about their “current workplace situation.” Almost a quarter (24%) of overall respondents to the 2022 Workload & Hours Survey (H2) reported that they were fully in office. This percentage is double the percentage (12%) reported in spring 2022. And it isn’t just law firms pushing for RTO—both in-house and law firm attorneys reported an increase.
Inversely, the percentage of respondents who reported that they were fully remote has dropped. In 2022, 31% of respondents said that they were fully remote or had “complete flexibility” over their schedule. In 2023, the percentage of respondents who said that they were fully remote was down to 13%.
In the past few months, organizations have released a range of RTO policies requiring more days in the office at both law firms and corporations. BlackRock Inc., Walt Disney Co., and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. all announced four-days-a-week requirements, as have law firms such as Skadden and Davis Polk.
Attorneys who don’t abide by these policies may be risking their bonus pay—and their jobs. Multiple law firms, including Simpson Thacher...
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