As the demand for legal services and law profits expanded exponentially last year, so did the competition for talent. Associates are being lured away from jobs, or enticed to stay in current jobs, with ever-increasing salaries, bonuses and perquisites, including the ability to work remotely; either all of the time, most of the time, or some of the time. Whether the extraordinary increases in compensation are sustainable will be borne out in the marketplace, as clients determine whether the rate increases that come with compensation increases are warranted or acceptable. The move toward remote work for junior lawyers, however, has far greater implications for our profession and the next generation of lawyers.

We all learned through the necessity of the pandemic that much of our work can be done well and efficiently away from the brick and mortar office. We logged in early in the day and frequently logged off late in the evening. We drafted documents and pleadings and sent endless e-mails. We did Zoom and WebEx and Microsoft Teams with courts and adversaries and colleagues.