The Future of Remote Working – Does it have one?

Abstract

In July 2021, Morgan Stanley’s chief legal officer, Eric Grossman, indicated in a memo to law firms his organisation instructed, that those who maintain remote working practices instead of returning to the office, will be at a disadvantage. In issuing this warning, Grossman cited his personal experience, “as we are already largely back in the office at Morgan Stanley, it is now clear to me that a hybrid meeting of live participants and Zoom participants is challenging at best.” In the memo Grossmann stated that as a 'general rule' Morgan Stanley would not facilitate the use of Zoom for ‘critical’ meetings, with a minor concession that it would deploy some technology innovations. Perhaps the most financially pertinent point in the memo to outside counsel was contained in these sentences: “We choose to hire you all because of the quality of your lawyers and the product they deliver. I strongly believe that firms that return to the office will have a significant performance advantage over those that do not.”