While the trend of remote early-year associate and out-of-footprint hiring is not entirely dead, despite the winding down of the COVID-19 pandemic and the relative return to some semblance of societal normalcy, the practice is no longer highly favored in Big Law, as remote work has given way to hybrid arrangements and return-to-office mandates.

During the early pandemic years, hiring associates to work fully remote, sometimes in cities and states where firms don't have a physical presence, became popularized. Am Law 100 firms including Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, Goodwin Procter, Perkins Coie, Husch Blackwell Fenwick & West and Latham & Watkins acknowledged a willingness to consider talented remote candidates to fill areas of need.