Lawyers are returning to office with 'startling enthusiasm,' survey says
A majority of surveyed legal professionals are satisfied with their law firms’ attendance policies, a “rather shocking turnaround” from discussions about the issue immediately following the COVID-19 pandemic. (Illustration from Shutterstock)
A majority of surveyed legal professionals are satisfied with their law firms’ attendance policies, a “rather shocking turnaround” from discussions about the issue immediately following the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by the Thomson Reuters Institute.
The “vast majority” of firms are taking a hybrid and flexible approach to office attendance, according to the 2024 Law Firm Office Attendance Policies Report, available here.
Fifty-seven percent of surveyed legal professionals were satisfied with the attendance policies, giving their satisfaction a rating of 8 to 10 on a 10-point scale. Twenty-nine percent were neutral, with ratings of 4 to 7, while 13% were not satisfied, with ratings of 1 to 3.
“For all the initial skepticism and ongoing discourse,” the report says, “legal professionals and law firm leaders have embraced their new office attendance policies with startling enthusiasm.”
The report is based on a survey taken between December 2023 and January 2024 that garnered 350 responses from legal professionals working at 105 large firms. Seventy-three percent of the respondents were lawyers, 16% were paralegals and 11% were executive leaders.
The majority of the respondents—56%—said their office required three days per week in the office. Ten percent said their office required no days in the office, 4% said one day, 15% said two days, 9% said four days and 6% said five days.
Many legal professionals showed up more often than required. While 15% said their firms required four or five days in the office, 46% said they came to the office four or more days per week.
Sixty-four percent of the respondents said their firms had flexible work policies that allowed them to mostly pick the days that they would be in the office, according to the report and a Thomson Reuters blog post.
The not-satisfied respondents worked for firms that were less flexible than average and were in the office more days than average.
“These lawyers were extraordinary for how vehement their rejection of these policies was, to the point where a large proportion of them were unsure if they would be at their firm in six months,” the report says.
