It’s wild what a distinction 5 years makes. In, say, 2019 (notably pre-Covid), in the event you mentioned the brand new Biglaw pattern was 4 days within the workplace I’d suppose work/life stability was lastly having its second and corporations have been really making progress to forestall burnout. However it’s 2025, and requiring 4 days of workplace face time is a stricter requirement than most agency attorneys have grown accustomed to over the past 5 years.
4 days within the workplace is unquestionably the brand new pattern. The most recent agency to announce 4 days is Duane Morris, a agency with $694,188,000 in gross income final yr making it 82nd on the Am Regulation 200 rating. Earlier this week, the agency introduced that, after Labor Day, they’ll need to be again within the workplace Monday via Thursday.
Learn the total memo under.
Duane Morris isn’t the one agency on the four-day-a-week prepare Covington; Davis Polk; Latham; Paul Weiss; Ropes & Gray; Simpson Thacher; Skadden; Vinson & Elkins; Weil Gotshal; WilmerHale; White & Case; Sidley; Hogan Lovells; and A&O Shearman can have a four-day, in-person attendance coverage — and Sullivan & Cromwell has taken its attendance coverage one step additional, requiring attorneys to work from the workplace 5 days every week.
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