Biglaw

Biglaw Firm's Leader Thinks Partners Need To Return To The Office To Guide Associates Back

Partners need to get their butts to the office -- or else. Start this trend, Biglaw.

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‘This could’ve been done on Zoom, but I have to be here just like you.’

Biglaw firms really, really want their lawyers to come back to the office. While many firms have encouraged associates to spend three days in the office each week, others have mandated those three days, and some have even gone so far as to tie bonus eligibility to office attendance. Thus far, the focus seems to be on forcing associates back into the office — but what about the partners?

One Biglaw firm has got the right idea, and its managing partner is looking into ways to get partners to lead the way back into the office.

Bob Bodian of Mintz Levin — a firm that brought in $617,700,000 gross revenue in 2022, putting it in 75th place on the most recent Am Law 100 — says that office attendance “starts and ends with the partners.” And why are the partners so important when it comes to getting attorneys back to their desks? “They have to buy into it and see a reason to be in and start coming in more,” he said. “It’s definitely an issue.”

As noted by Bloomberg Law, Mintz currently has a “flexible” hybrid policy, with lawyers expected to spend 60% of their time in the offices. Bodian isn’t too keen on mandating an attendance policy right now because a great deal of the firm’s partners are still working remotely. “It’s not really our style,” he told Bloomberg. “Once you do that, you have to enforce it.”

“We have less attorneys coming to the office than I’d like to see, or less frequently than I like to see,” he added. “So, I’m trying to figure out how to sort of change that without making too many rules.”

Bodian is correct, of course, when he says that partners must be the first to return to the office. Biglaw firms need to lead by example, and who better to set the example than the partners? If we want hybrid work schedules to actually work well, the partners need a voice.

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Perhaps if partners were to raise objections over the time wasted on their commutes when they could have been working from home instead, that would matter. And if those partners were to complain about a having a set schedule of in-office days, that would matter too. Stop threatening associate bonuses, and start insisting that partner pay could be in jeopardy. Laughable, right? Mandating that partners come to the office before associates could be a game changer.

In his wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg — which covered the firm’s financial successes (its gross revenue was up about 5% from 2021), a new Toronto office, and plans for a Miami office — everything came back to office attendance at the end of the day:

“I’m trying to balance the size of the place, and the profitability and the culture and not getting picked apart,” Bodian said.

His approach to office attendance is part of the calculus.

“I think about making sure that the firm is someplace where my partners want to be, and where associates want to be,” Bodian said. “Not make too many rules, but also try to make it more business-like and be big enough to continue to drive the profit.”

Biglaw firms should make some rules for partners when it comes to returning to the office. Let’s see how that works out. Maybe associates wouldn’t be getting the short end of the stick if the office-return rules applied equally to everyone, top to bottom.

Mintz Chief Wants Partners to Lead Associates Back to Office [Bloomberg Law]

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Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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