Morgan Stanley’s chief legal officer’s call for lawyers to return to their offices has provoked a strong reaction from European and U.K. lawyers, with some in the market describing it as “arrogant” and “tone deaf”.
Their thoughts come after a letter from Morgan Stanley’s CLO Eric Grossman to outside counsel was made public on Thursday, in which he expressed an expectation to see lawyers back in their offices, adding that the bank won’t accommodate Zoom technology in “critical meetings”, and arguing that “firms that return to the office will have a significant performance advantage over those that do not”.
