The Volokh Conspiracy
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"Quinn Emanuel Tells U.S. Lawyers They Can Work from Anywhere, Forever"
So reports Reuters (David Thomas):
The 875-lawyer litigation firm will recruit lawyers in places where it doesn't have an office, giving it an advantage in the U.S. legal industry's talent wars, said firm chair and founder John Quinn….
Quinn Emanuel's move is unprecedented for a large firm, said Kristin Stark, a principal with law firm consultancy Fairfax Associates….
In addition to aiding with recruiting, the policy could translate into lower expenses in the long term. Quinn said "it is inevitable" that the firm will remodel and down size its current office space….
Still, it isn't adopting a virtual model. Quinn said the firm wants to make it attractive for employees to come into its offices, emphasizing common areas and open spaces.
Quinn Emanuel will also have to make "an extra effort" and offer more mentorship and training opportunities to remote attorneys, he said.
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In 2003, when I retired from the partnership at a DC mega-firm, and moved to Florida, I continued to practice law with that firm part-time as of counsel. Even in those early tech days, I found it pretty easy to “practice law at a distance”, thanks to computers, the internet, and cellphones. In fact, after awhile, I ended my relationship with the mega-firm and became of counsel to a small DC firm that gave me all the support I needed and let me keep a bigger share of my collections.
I don’t know Quinn Emanuel, but they should be wary: practicing-law-at-a-distance can make independence easy for lawyers who have or can generate their own client base.
It is about time. Get rid of al buildings, all transportation. They are pure waste if the product is legal work.
Practice from home can make sense for someone with recognized and legitimate expertise, a strong network, a commercially sound practice area, and a roster of clients. For those who aspire to that condition, I find it difficult to believe it would be likely to develop skills, reputation, relationships, and workload without substantial on-location interaction with colleagues, clients, peers, and others.
Professional development does not require 300 lawyers and 300 staff, but it likely requires more than one person sitting in an extra room equipped with desk, internet connection, scanner, and mobile telephone.
I have been a partner at a large law firm and, toward retirement, a sole practitioner — in that order, thank goodness. Sequence is important (‘if Bob Dylan’s albums were released in inverse order, few would have been made.’) Had I begun as a sole practitioner it is difficult to envision being hired by or earning a partnership at a good law firm — let alone collecting my current billing rate.
In another career, I learned in newsrooms (and in the field), with long hours, rapid deadlines, and a few very good, essential mentors. Can telework develop new generations of first-rate professionals (or durable, strong organizations)? I am skeptical to the point of wishing one could short that position.
This move by Quinn Emanuel evokes the ’80s-era ‘disrupting the model’ announcements of Finley Kumble (or whatever that disaster was called) and inclines me to expect another announcement from Quinn Emanuel, some years from now, also reminiscent of Finley Kumble.
I agree.
I advance another step and assert that we have been failing our young lawyers for a number of years. More than a dozen lawyers devoted time, skill, and effort to my development during my first years of practice. Work was allocated with an eye toward reducing fees for clients, developing the younger lawyers, and continuing to build the firm’s future.
Some of today’s partners hoard work and practice in areas they have no business touching. In a couple of cases, the problems have been severe enough to incline firms to turn to an outside lawyer to address the problem (and you should hear the excuses those partners advance when questioned). Young associates have indicated that they sense partners try to avoid enabling newer lawyers to develop strong relationships with clients, perhaps for fear of losing billing credit. Firms also appear to be hiring far fewer newer lawyers. This is, in my judgment, bad for everyone.
Distance work also makes it easy for lazy people to get away with false billing, at least for a while.
As an employer, you also lose institutional knowledge and camaraderie and innovation that comes from teamwork in a shared space.
As an employee, you must be intensely self-driven because you become the afterthought when it comes to inclusion in office culture and mentorship.
Most companies appreciate the real estate savings by being able to reduce office spaces, but there’s a distinct lack of productivity and increase in bullshit product coming out of distance workers.
I wouldn’t hire a college grad post 2019 who isn’t able to prove they’ve attended courses on-site, with letters from professors attesting to it.
Same for employees who spent the last year distance working. I need people who are willing to perform on-site and have a record of waking up each day to be a big boy and come to work in pants, not pajamas.
Nah; that’s just a dumb prejudice, mostly held by old people who think things need to be done the way they were when they were young. Obviously some individuals are more productive in an office. Many others are more productive when they’re not wasting two hours a day commuting, plus spending time building “camaraderie” instead of working when they’re in the office.
Of course, some projects do require teamwork, but thanks to Al Gore having invented the Internet, much teamwork can be remote. There are some times when people may need to be physically in the same room, or when they may be more productive if they are. But those are the minority, and don’t justify going back to full time office work.
but there’s a distinct lack of productivity and increase in bullshit product coming out of distance workers.
Not in my experience, which includes not only my own company but those in which many of my family members and friends are employed. While there are likely some industry-specific variables at play here, in the IT sector telecommuting has worked out very well for companies (or at least parts of companies) where hiring and retention practices with a focus on work ethic are the norm. I actually put in more working hours per week now that my commute consists of a ~40 ft/10 second walk from my bed to my home office than I did previously when it involved a 17 mile/35 minute drive from my house to my office…and then back again at the end of the day. There are multiple other factors that contribute to greater productivity as well, including (but not limited too) greatly reduced stress (due to things like working in the comfort of my own home and no more dealing with traffic), not having people constantly dropping into my office and interrupting me, taking a short break every hour to go outside and do something (which has the benefit of clearing my mind and helping me to think through whatever problem I’m trying to solve, as well as some health benefits), etc.
Also, the savings on fuel, vehicle wear-and-tear, etc have been a win-win for myself and my company, as I have been willing to lower my salary increase expectations accordingly (essentially a split down the middle for each of us).
Same for employees who spent the last year distance working. I need people who are willing to perform on-site and have a record of waking up each day to be a big boy and come to work in pants, not pajamas.
Hire good people and pay them what good people are worth and that won’t be a problem. If you employ people who aren’t both able and willing to do the same work in their Spider Man jammies as they would while wearing pants (assuming an industry in which telecommuting is practical) then you’ve done a shitty job in terms of hiring and retaining the right people.
This. It’s both the time saved commuting as well as the logistics. When I go to the office, at the end of the day I start getting fidgety and looking at the clock and deciding that I’m sick of those four walls and I want to get home. When I’m in my home office, at the end of the day I’m thinking, “just 5 more minutes; need to finish this document. Okay, 10 more minutes…” and then it ends up being an extra hour.
I can’t overstate the mental health benefits of taking a work break to go out back and see what your dogs are barking at and finding that one of the neighbors has dropped by for a visit and a bite. We had a few laughs and a chat about fence maintenance, then I came back in and went back to work, leaving him to continue mowing my pasture. My chickens were not as amused though.
https://i.imgur.com/hue6xtB.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Xwqd6FT.jpg
Oh, another benefit…having my kitchen at hand has both radically improved my diet and resulted in another reduction in my daily work-related expenses.
Our firm has simply stopped hiring in expensive cities, like NYC and San Bansisco. The only real obstacle to working from India is the time zone.
The question becomes what labor laws apply. It’s a thorny issue. If I live in North Carolina, but work from my RV in Arizona during the winter, for a job based out of NY, what laws for medical leave, overtime, workplace safety,… and taxes!
You should pay taxes where you consume infrastructure and government services.
Explain that to New Jersey and New York.
Thats just picking your favorite brand of poison. Both are pretty awful.
I have a 20 minute commute from Boston, and 20 min in the other direction is Nashua, NH. I’m wondering, since I work from home most of the time, I should have doubled my commute when I do work, in exchange for zero income taxes … but it looks like MA would have charged me either way
40 minute commute in a major city is nothing.
Race to the bottom starts. Bottom of commercial real estate and urban premium homes that is. Wonder if there be any savings passed on to clients? Hahah
Eventually it will be passed on as lower labor and real estate costs.
Thing is, “lower costs” is not what you think it is. With the current red hot labor market, it may simply mean “less of an increase” than you would otherwise see.
There was a time when a simple sale of stock required paying over $100 in today’s money as a brokerage fee.
There was a long era, not all that long ago, when the typical Schwab fee was $29.
Nowadays that fee is, literally, zero.
Clients have benefitted. No haha.
Well, we can argue how much of an improvement payment for order flow really is. Probably better to use a standard brokerage with a small comission. But thats a fair point.
They have benefitted. The fees on ETFs are really low. Index fund ETFs largely outperform stock picking or your favorite algorithm trade.
If you insist on being your own fund manager. Liquidity is very high even for small name stocks. It’s also much easier to fund information on companies than ever before.
If you think that it all means that stocks always go up, or people make wise choices (its very hard to beat passive indexing over time, ppp lose a lot of money that way), then maybe “benefit” does not mean what you think.