Editor’s note: Labor Day has passed, and several top firms are now operating on a 4-day in-office mandate. Yet 3½ years after offices abruptly emptied out thanks to COVID-19, it now feels that hybrid work has finally hit an equilibrium. This is the first entry in The New Normal?, a Law.com series that aims to make sense of what the future of work in the legal industry looks like. 

Several elite law firms are pushing in-office mandates, leaving the door open for other firms to tap top talent by dangling flexibility as a carrot.