The Pandemic Job Market, Part 2: From Pandemonium to Institutional Recalibration

There is nothing normal about any return-to-office plan. For most, if not all, a return to office means vaccine and mask mandates, regular COVID testing, personal risk versus professional ambition calculations, and/or commuter rituals and requirements shifting weekly in a hybrid model. These factors have led to an alarming amount of attrition and an ensuing frenzy of hiring this year for every corporation, law firm, software company, or service provider in the legal space. The result is a slow, arduous hiring process in the legal industry created by the refusal of some employers, namely law firms, to accept new realities related to the future of work and the motivations of talent in the industry today. Conversely, other employers have turned strife into opportunity and have begun to recalibrate their institutional policies, processes, technologies, and permissions to attract and retain workers.