Leaving Your BigLaw Firm for a Permanent Remote Associate Position

More and more BigLaw firms are announcing their return-to-work plans. Some are asking associates to ease into coming back to the office over the summer. Others are approaching the return more gradually, allowing attorneys to come back at some point this year or early 2022. And a few have explicitly announced that they will allow attorneys to always work remote at least a few days a week.

But all of the major BigLaw firms have one thing in common: They want you back in the office at least a couple days a week.

However, what if you relocated during the pandemic and want to stay working remotely? Maybe you work for a New York BigLaw firm, but want to stay close to family in Phoenix. Or you're at a Bay Area tech firm, but moved with some friends to a place like Sun Valley, Idaho and are considering staying there.

There are options for you.

With lateral associate hiring at a peak, some BigLaw firms are hiring for permanent remote associate positions. Negotiating this kind of arrangement requires the right background, good timing, some luck and a well-informed recruiter who will match you with the right firm and position.

The pandemic has revealed that associates can be quite productive working remotely full-time. Some associates and firms had their most productive years ever in 2020. So the firms know it can be done. The question is when and how will firms allow for a permanent remote arrangement.

Here are some key considerations for lateralling to a permanent remote associate position:

Hard-to-fill associate positions offer the most flexibility, especially in hot practice areas like capital markets, executive compensation, finance and highly-specialized regulatory work. The lateral associate hiring market is definitely the busiest it has been in years. But some hiring is more active than others. And this largely depends on the practice area. Because of the hot SPAC IPO market, capital markets practices need many more associates than they currently have. Practices like executive compensation and finance have been understaffed with talent since pre-pandemic times. And for certain regulatory practices for industries like finance, health care and technology, firms are looking for a "needle in a haystack" candidate with the right experience. In all of these practice areas, it is more likely that a firm will consider a permanent remote associate hire.

"Cross-office" firms and practices are much more likely to be open to permanent remote arrangements. Increasingly, you will see BigLaw associate position openings listed across several or all offices of the firm. This is likely because the team for the relevant practice area is spread out anyway, so the firm does not care where the associate sits. (This can also be the case even when the position is listed in only one place, but you will need to a rely on a recruiter that knows the background of the group and need.) When a team is spread across multiple offices like this, the firm is more likely to be open to a permanent remote arrangement. Since the team is used to working with people they don't see all the time anyway, it can be an easy adjustment to work with someone who is remote from their home.

Firms with existing flexible frameworks will be more supportive of remote arrangements. Before the pandemic, a movement was building for BigLaw firms to create more "flex" options for their associates: Adjusted hours; Work-from-home allowances; Partial-remote arrangements. Some firms were far along with these options when the pandemic started. Others were not. It goes without saying that the more precedent a firm has with flexible work arrangements, the more likely they will consider a permanent remote one.

It helps if the firm has an office in the state or city where you plan to work remotely (and that you are barred in that state as well). Firms can be skittish about remote work arrangements when they don't have an office in the city or state where you plan to work. There are bar admission, tax and employment law considerations when a firm hires someone to work from a place where they do not have an office. The tax and employment law issues can be surmountable, depending on internal firm policies. But the bar admission issue is a little thornier and is beholden to the individual bar requirements at the state level.

When requesting a permanent remote arrangement, your recruiter needs to ask upfront. When considering a lateral move, there are certain things that make sense to negotiate during the interview process or post-offer phase like bonuses and relocation expenses. This is not the case with a permanent remote arrangement. Your recruiter should ask this upfront firm-by-firm.

Remote arrangements are possible, but I expect they will get much more competitive as the year goes on. I have spoken to many associates who are thinking about it, but want to see how their firm's return-to-work timeline works out. By the time they are asked to go back into the office, it may be too late to find a remote position.