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https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business- ... ce-in-2021

"Cooley said that it will not institute a mandatory return date or a minimum number of in-office days for those at the firm whose job duties permit remote work."

I'm an incoming Cooley first year associate, and I'm really excited about the flexibility. I see this as a big win for my future mental health

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 20, 2021 6:54 pm

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business- ... ce-in-2021

"Cooley said that it will not institute a mandatory return date or a minimum number of in-office days for those at the firm whose job duties permit remote work."

I'm an incoming Cooley first year associate, and I'm really excited about the flexibility. I see this as a big win for my future mental health

I'm also an incoming first year and haven't heard about this. Would imagine we get an email in the coming days.

With WSGR and now Cooley having this policy, other Silicon Valley firms better match

Not sure i understand the article. Does that mean remote will continue after 2021

Clearly an indication that going forward, we can predict firms' WFH policies based on the type of clients they have. Firms that predominantly service the Morgan Stanleys of the world will make their lawyers come into the office a lot more than firms like Cooley who make their revenue from straight up corporates and startups. Very different pressures and incentives for the two types of firms.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 21, 2021 9:16 am

Clearly an indication that going forward, we can predict firms' WFH policies based on the type of clients they have. Firms that predominantly service the Morgan Stanleys of the world will make their lawyers come into the office a lot more than firms like Cooley who make their revenue from straight up corporates and startups. Very different pressures and incentives for the two types of firms.

Not sure how Morgan Stanley would even know where their attorneys are working from as long as the firm isn’t advertising permanent remote roles.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 21, 2021 9:16 am

Clearly an indication that going forward, we can predict firms' WFH policies based on the type of clients they have. Firms that predominantly service the Morgan Stanleys of the world will make their lawyers come into the office a lot more than firms like Cooley who make their revenue from straight up corporates and startups. Very different pressures and incentives for the two types of firms.

Ironically, Cooley actually does a lot of ECM work for Morgan Stanley (and other banks that play in the tech/biotech ECM space).

I’m not sure how much client pressure is going to matter at the end of the day, I get that he MS CLO or whoever came out and said what he said, but I doubt that many others in the industry are going to be putting this sort of pressure on…if anything the pandemic has shown lawyers are just as (if not more) productive working from home.

My personal wish is for many law firms to tell Morgan Stanley's GC to take his "return to office" demand and shove it because I think it's so annoying for a GC to try to micromanage outside counsel like that. Of course this is a service industry and I understand there are pros and cons of wfh, but if firms are making the decision that they are able to provide quality client service this way, why is this dude telling them they can't?

This makes me kinda irrationally angry, but I don't have experience so I can't tell if this is reasonable. Curious to hear others' thoughts about it?

I think the banks know the NYC economy in particular is vulnerable if office workers don’t return soon.

Any updates on firms that have announced mandatory return dates?