One thing almost all law firm leaders agree on is working in person has huge benefits to building culture, collaboration and mentoring junior members of the firm. To that end, there's a growing sentiment among law firm leaders that fully remote working will not have a long term positive effective on the success of the firm.

In fact, according to the 2022 Citi Hildebrandt Client Advisory, getting office returns right is still the most pressing challenge facing law firms, and found as well that many firms believe the remote environment has damaged personal relationships at work and the sense of belonging amongst many lawyers — and may be a contributor to the ease with which lawyers, from partners to associates, are moving firms.

The problem is, the longer employees work remotely, the more difficult it becomes to attract them back to the office at all — even on a hybrid schedule. According to studies in Social Psychology, it can take 18 to 254 days for a person to form a new habit, and a median 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic — we are well past the maximum timeframe on both.