Dechert lawyers will begin returning to the office in mid-September, when the firm hopes they will start working at least half their time from the firm’s office space.
The move represents a middle ground in the return-to-office strategies Big Law firms have been laying out in recent days while vaccination rates rise and Covid-19 infections and death rates fall across the country.
Dechert “strongly encourages” employees to be vaccinated, according to an internal email sent on Tuesday by policy committee chair Andy Levander and CEO Henry Nassau and obtained by Bloomberg Law.
While the firm believes its post-pandemic office life will involve half of lawyers’ time in the office, the memo also said lawyers will have some flexibility to choose “where and how” to work.
“Through this flexible hybrid model, we believe we can balance in-person and virtual working in a way that engages and empowers our community to better support our clients and meet the professional and personal needs of our people,” the email said.
The memo said the firm had conducted a survey on returning to the office taken by nearly 1,400 employees.
Big Law firms have been releasing their back to the office plans as summer approaches.
Most recently, Bloomberg Law confirmed that Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Latham & Watkins, and Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel will be reopening their offices in September though the specifics of their approaches vary.
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