Even as private-sector attorneys have increasingly moved back to the office post-pandemic, one group of public lawyers is fighting the trend.

The union representing California-employed attorneys is either arbitrating or about to start arbitrating roughly 50 cases involving state agencies and departments that have ordered its members back to the office, according to the organization’s leadership. Though relatively small in membership—the California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges, and Hearing Officers in State Employment, better known as CASE, enrolls about 4,500 legal professionals—the bargaining unit has led the legal fight against return-to-office directives.