NOT GONNA CUT IT - How’s this for a trade-off? Get paid less to do more work while also saving your firm a ton in overhead costs. Who says no? Bizarrely, it turns out a majority of U.K. lawyers are not jazzed about that idea, according to a survey by Law.com International, though, as Law.com International’s Varsha Patel reports, nearly 50% of respondents to the same poll were fine with pay cuts for remote staff. In a poll of over 50 lawyers, when asked if they would opt for a pay cut alongside full time home working if their firm offered it, 72% of respondents said no; 15% said they would take the pay cut; while 13% were undecided. One partner at a medium to large law firm flagged what they perceive as hypocrisies between law firms’ solid financials and pay cuts. They said: “Law firms cannot on one side boast about their income/profit and on the other side cut pay only because of remote work…  if such remote work remains without effect on the quality and amount of work done.” “A pay cut is frustrating and may lead to good employees leaving,” they added. Gosh, these folks are hard to please! Not everyone is so unreasonable, however. A 20%-30% hit on salary would still be “a fantastic deal to not have to commute,” according to one partner, who is apparently wildly overpaying for train tickets.

WHAT YOU SAID

“We had such clarity of purpose and people. The adrenaline and the exigencies of the moment carried us through the pandemic.”

— Terry Theologides, GC of Fannie Mae, explaining why he sometimes feels it’s more difficult to lead in the current environment than it was during the height of the pandemic.