Managing partner Deborah Read isn’t yet certain when Thompson Hine’s lawyers will return to the office in large numbers, or what “normal” will look like once they do, but she’s sure of one thing: There is something lost when lawyers can connect only virtually, especially in terms of training and development, and eventually clients will take notice.

“They pay Am Law 200 lawyers to think about and analyze deeply their problems and to deliver business-oriented solutions, and those are things that aren’t easily learned from Zoom calls or from someone’s kitchen table,” Read says.