One Washington, D.C., law firm is moving to a hybrid work environment, but it isn't bothering with setting a minimum number of days in the office for lawyers and staff. Instead, 30-lawyer financial services firm Gilbert is allowing them to work from home whenever they think it's appropriate and come to the office whenever the desire calls or the task requires it. It's the latest indication of a midsize firm being nimble enough to sharply adjust to remote operations, compared with Am Law 200 counterparts that are asking lawyers to return to offices on most days of the week. But the Gilbert firm's policy hasn't been cobbled together in reaction to the post-pandemic environment. Instead, the firm has been moving to a new model for the past three years, as it prepared to move into new offices this year in Southwestern D.C. near the Eastern Market. Before the pandemic started, the firm embraced a concept known as hoteling, or hot-desking. Offices and work areas are available to all staff, but they are not assigned. If lawyers and staff decide they want to come into the office, they can book a space on an app.  The app is linked to a digital sign on the door of the office or space that lists the team member's name for the day. All the offices are roughly the same size, but configured slightly differently to accommodate a range of personal tastes. But there are no corner offices. Everyone from staff and junior associates all the way up to the managing partner have equal opportunity to book and use any office or space. "The idea was to use hoteling, hybrid work arrangements and collaborative concepts to help lawyers and staff work where they needed to and improve our effectiveness with clients and increase productivity," said the firm's director of external affairs, Eric Hauser. Well before the pandemic hit, Gilbert staff and lawyers were well versed in remote working. They had all been given laptops and company funds to buy furniture and set up a space in their homes from which they could work. All lawyers and most staff had already been doing some regular work from home before the end of 2019. "A hybrid model seems quite logical after what we've all experienced over the last year, but we started down this path a bit earlier. Toward the end of 2019, we had planned to ease into the new model slowly," said longtime partner Craig Litherland, who is quick to add that some activities are still best accomplished face-to-face in the office. "Our question was how do we give people as much flexibility but not lose the qualities that require meeting in-person—particular kinds of discussions, collaboration and relationship building." When lockdowns began in March 2020, Litherland feels Gilbert was already well prepared. "We had done a lot of training for people on how to work remotely effectively. We had electronic systems in place and already tested," he said.  Work on the new offices was completed in May 2020, while everyone was on lockdown at home. The new offices feature multiple booths and workstations scattered throughout the office, as well as multiple "den" areas to "foster informal collaboration," said Hauser. Tech features include cloud-managed Wi-Fi 6-enabled access points and multiple desk configurations with ergonomic desks for standing and sitting. Tuesday marked the first day of the next phase of Gilbert's new office opening schedule. Since May 2020, Gilbert has essentially had only one policy for staff and lawyers: Work from home and if you want to, a few people can come into the new offices. "For nearly a year now, we've been allowing a very small number of people to come to the office—but it's been purely voluntary," said Litherland. "And some people have. Some have come on a regular basis. Some people have come once or twice." As of June 15, the office is officially open for business to everyone, but that doesn't mean everyone has to come in every day—or much at all. In fact, staff and lawyers have been invited to come in at least three days over the next month, to get a feel for the new place. Yet Wednesday morning, Litherland commented to one of his colleagues that there were a lot more people in the office than he had expected. "Many people seem keen simply to come back in and meet or experience the new location," he said. "It's nice to see the new office being used in the way we intended."

Pre-Pandemic Planning

In 2018, the lawyers, staff and management at Gilbert came together to discuss what they wanted the future of life and work at the firm to look like. Their lease in a traditional downtown D.C. office was coming up in a couple of years, and there was a widespread feeling among the team that it was an opportunity to rethink office life. "This was more than a year before the pandemic," said Litherland. "We wondered just how much people were using their offices during the week and realized that at any point in time—whether it be because of traveling, court appearances or client meetings—about a third of us weren't even in the office." That insight made Litherland think about not only their physical space but also their office's 10 minutes' walk from the White House, their near neighbors the likes of Covington & Burling, White & Case and Jenner & Block. "Gilbert's leadership concluded that the long-standing model of law firm operations would not last," the firm wrote in a white paper about their transformation. "New influences were gaining traction—technology, diversity, flexibility, and changing views with respect to effective teamwork. Traditional hierarchies, workplaces and methods could not attract and retain the next generation of legal innovators." By late 2019, the firm had found new offices outside the downtown area, near the popular Eastern Market—a local gourmet food hall in the city's Southwest region. Gilbert signed the lease late that year and began construction of their new space in January 2020.