I just read an article saying that a large percentage of young lawyers — 44% — would quit rather than come into the office.

Let me be provocative here and say that a law firm that has too much WFH has a very high likelihood of extinction.

And let me also be provocative and say that a young lawyer who goes too much for the WFH angle has a very high likelihood of career extinction or at least job loss at the next downturn.

Let me explain.

A lawyer I just interviewed told me essentially that there was no reason to go into the office at his firm since no one was there, so if you go in, you are all alone. He works from home, as does almost everyone. It is just no fun, and there is really no law firm at all. Just a bunch of people logging in. That is why he is interviewing with me — because he wants a place to go where he has friends and human interaction.

Building on this, let’s get back to basics. What is a law firm? It is a collection of lawyers who are together because they want to be together. If they stop wanting to be together, then they leave, and the law firm ends. As a partner of mine told me years ago when I was managing partner: “Bruce,” he said, “all of the assets of this company go down the elevator every night. Your job is to make sure they come back in the morning.”

Well, if everyone works from home, it sounds like all the assets aren’t coming back in the morning, are they? They are home — perhaps working hard — but there is no connection to the firm. If they...

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