Four-day office mandates spread at big US law firms

By Sara Merken

March 4 (Reuters) - Lawyers at more top U.S. law firms are being told to show up to the office four days a week, as corporate clients also step up demands for office attendance.

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison are each expecting lawyers to be in the office four days a week starting this spring, up from three, spokespeople from the two firms confirmed.

Other large law firms including Davis Polk & Wardwell; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Ropes & Gray; Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Vinson & Elkins have adopted similar four-day-a-week policies since 2023.

"By being physically present together, we better develop our talent and ensure that we continue to deliver the level of extraordinary service that our clients expect," a Paul Weiss spokesperson said in a statement.

Friday will be a "remote-option" day under the new policy, which takes effect for all Paul Weiss lawyers and business professionals on April 30.

The new requirement at WilmerHale takes effect on April 28, according to a person familiar with the policy change.

More than half of respondents to a survey last year said their law firm requires lawyers to come in at least three days per week, according to an April report by the Thomson Reuters Institute, which shares the same parent company as Reuters. The data included 350 responses from 105 U.S. law firms.

U.S. bank JPMorgan Chase in January asked its employees who are on hybrid work schedules to return to the office five days a week starting in March, an internal memo seen by Reuters showed.

Amazon.com said in September it would require employees to return to working at company offices five days per week.

Not all law firms have imposed stricter in-office requirements since the pandemic. Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Husch Blackwell still allow full-time alternatives to in-person work. Phoenix-founded Fennemore Craig last summer also launched a new program to hire lawyers in locations where it does not have offices.