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The new policy will be implemented January 1, 2025.
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The policy shift reflects a trend among top law firms to increase office attendance post-pandemic.
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Some firms remain committed to a three-day in-office policy.
Latham & Watkins has announced that its New York attorneys will be required to work in the office four days a week, beginning next year. The new policy will come into effect on January 1, 2025.
The firm will not require any mandatory attendance days, but rather will defer to its attorneys to determine what works best, Marc Jaffe, managing partner of Latham’s New York office, said in an email viewed by Bloomberg Law.
“Our continued success in large part rests on training, developing, collaborating, and connecting with each other,” he said in his email. “We believe working and being together in person is essential.”
Jaffee added that this new standard is consistent with the firm’s vision for how it can work together to serve its clients, and was based on internal consultations and the policies of many of its clients and peers.
What Other Firms Are Doing
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Four-day attendance:
With this decision, Latham joins other firms that have adopted mandatory four-day-per-week attendance, such as Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Ropes & Gray and Vinson & Elkins.
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Three-day attendance:
Many others of Latham’s peers, however, are sticking to a three-day model, according to Law.com. For instance, firms like Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, Goodwin Procter, Milbank, Schulte Roth & Zabel, and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson all said their firms were sticking with three days per week and would not change that, at least this year.
While some firms are doubling down on in-office work, others are embracing the shift towards flexible work models, which many attorneys support. According to a recent article from Reuters, certain U.S. law firms are bucking the trend by promoting fully remote options or virtual offices for their teams.
