Citing the growing threat of the Covid-19 Delta variant among people who are unvaccinated, several law firms in Texas have announced they are delaying the date when they will require lawyers and staff to return to the office and that employees working on-site must be vaccinated.
Four of the largest corporate law firms operating in Texas – Akin Gump, Haynes and Boone, Norton Rose Fulbright and Vinson & Elkins – announced Friday that they will now require people to report to their offices in October instead of September.
Holland & Knight, which merged with Thompson & Knight Aug. 1, has mandated that all of its personnel working at the office must be vaccinated by Oct. 12.
McDermott, Perkins Coie, Reed Smith, Paul Weiss, Sheppard Mullin and Weil Gotshal instituted similar policies.
Haynes and Boone told its lawyers and support staff that the firm “will require proof of vaccination for all lawyers and staff who choose to work in our U.S. offices” effective today, Aug. 16. The Dallas-based firm also said that it is delaying its “return-to-work plans” for U.S. offices from Sept. 7 to Oct. 4.
Norton Rose Fulbright, which is headquartered in London but has its largest U.S. presence in Texas, said in a statement Friday that “our full return to our U.S. offices will occur no earlier than October 18.”
“In the U.S., more than 90 percent of Norton Rose Fulbright’s lawyers and more than 85 percent of all personnel have received the Covid-19 vaccination,” Norton Rose Fulbright said in a written statement.
In an email to lawyers and staff Friday, Vinson & Elkins chairman Mark Kelly and managing partner Scott Wulfe said they were “heartened to see that … approximately 90% of our U.S. workforce has reported being fully vaccinated.”
“We recognize that the uncertainty brought on by the surge in Covid cases makes our planned return date in early September unrealistic for some of our workforce,” Kelly and Wulfe stated. “We have decided to delay our formal return to the office in the U.S. until Oct. 11, 2021.”
The V&E memo stated that, effective Sept. 7, anyone working in the firm’s U.S. offices must be vaccinated.
“You have demonstrated that working remotely ‘works’ for much of what we do on a daily basis, so delaying our return until the right time is something that we can confidently do,” Kelly and Wulfe wrote.
“Individuals who are unvaccinated and whose positions allow them to work remotely – a category that includes attorneys and a number of staff positions – may continue to do so until further notice,” according to the V&E memo. “The firm will consider requests for accommodation, based on medical or religious reasons, consistent with applicable law.”
V&E leaders said they “do not currently expect to mandate a particular number of days per week in the office for our lawyers and certain members of our staff, but rather ask that over time you transition back to the office in a meaningful and safe way.”
“Our decision to move into a hybrid environment reflects our trust in all of you as professionals and the reality that no ‘one-size-fits-all’ scenario exists,” Kelly and Wulfe wrote.