Big Law’s return to the office is best described as jittery. Complicated by the enduring zeal for hybrid working, peaking concerns over mental health, associate departures, and ‘green’ office moves, all as the oft-forgotten pandemic ticks on, it’s been anything but easy, proving that the calculus for striking that balance between WFH and in-office work is, to many, still a cryptic riddle.
When in April bosses of U.K. law firm Stephenson Harwood said that they were offering their lawyers the chance to work remotely for a 20% pay cut, they probably didn’t anticipate the furore that followed. The legal press, then the world’s media, including the BBC, then the public. Just about everyone had something to say.
