May 26, 2020—In the coming weeks, Barclay Damon will reopen its 12-office Northeast platform, which was closed due to the COVID-19 crisis, but it will do so with a different approach from other firms—working from home for part or all of the week will remain an option for all attorneys and staff going forward.
Remote working will be available to everyone at Barclay Damon in all locations and will be reviewed as a possible permanent option at year end; anyone who prefers working from home and is able to successfully perform their duties there will have that choice. The goal is to create a work environment that offers maximum flexibility. Whether from home or the office, the firm’s attorneys and staff will continue to be available to clients 24/7 by phone, email, and videoconference, and offices will be fully reopened for client meetings, for appropriate gatherings, and for those attorneys and staff electing to work from the office.
Connie Cahill, Barclay Damon’s deputy managing partner, is leading the firm’s office reopening plan.
Cahill said, “Our firm’s top priorities are always protecting the health and well-being of our extraordinary pool of talent and creating the best environment for achieving optimum results for our clients. We are fortunate that the firm’s longtime investment in technology training and culture of collaboration across office locations made the transition easy to 100-percent remote working. Because our service to clients did not waver, and because many of our attorneys and staff found working from home beneficial to their particular situations, we are exploring work-from-home as a permanent change to our delivery model. If successful, we also see the change substantially expanding the geographic boundaries of our search for talent.”
Managing partner John Langan added, “While other law firms we are reading about are advocating for a quick return to the office, we see things differently. Our experience over the past few months confirms that most of our people are just as effective delivering top-quality legal services regardless of whether they are physically working from our offices. The implications of the pandemic to our profession and many other businesses in the United States are far reaching and will be fully apparent in the coming years. For now, we are listening to our clients and employees, and both are saying the same thing—be safe, stay flexible, and focus on results, not from where those results are generated.”
Also launched in response to the pandemic, Barclay Damon’s COVID-19 Response Team assesses regulatory, legislative, and other governmental updates, and attorneys across practices and industry teams produce alerts and webinars on a wide range of topics related to the crisis. In the first five months of this year, the firm has issued twice as many alerts and held three times as many webinars as it did in all of 2019.
Maureen Fyke, director of marketing and business development, noted, “Clients love the increased information relevant to their businesses during this historically disruptive period, and our attorneys and staff are energized to provide it.”
Barclay Damon attorneys team across offices and practices to provide customized, targeted solutions grounded in industry knowledge and a deep understanding of our clients’ businesses. With nearly 300 attorneys, Barclay Damon is a leading law firm that operates from a strategic platform of offices located in the Northeastern United States and Toronto. For more information, visit our award-winning website at barclaydamon.com.