As remote work becomes popular among younger lawyers and the rise in COVID-19 cases cause firms to redraft office reopening plans, firm leaders are worried about a growing group of lawyers who have missed out on in-person mentorship from senior partners and may create a dearth of future firm leaders.

“There’s a lot of anguish when it comes to the loss of training that is done when you have in-person arrangements, because training is really a team sport and a mentoring sport,” said Brad Hildebrandt, chair of Hildebrandt Consulting, who provides consulting services for Am Law 100 firms. “When you talk to the leaders at firms, one of the things they will say every time is they are concerned about a lost generation of lawyers who have not been trained properly.”