With Covid cases on the rise again, more law firms are mandating employees get vaccinated

As some of California's largest employers rolled out vaccination mandates last week, law firms are weighing whether to follow suit.

Meyers Nave LLP and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP confirmed Friday they plan to mandate vaccinations for employees. Meyers Nave is firming up its policy, which will likely go into effect in the next 30 days, firm principal Janice P. Brown said in an interview.

Katie Moss, a spokesperson for Davis Polk, did not confirm by press time when its policy will be effective.

Fisher & Phillips LLP does not currently require vaccinations for employees working on-site, but may soon reconsider its policy "given the rising threat of the Delta variant," said spokesperson Meghan Warin. She added, "When the FDA gives its expected final unconditional approval of the vaccines, we will readdress these questions about mandatory vaccinations."

Meyers Nave and Davis Polk join a host of other law firms that have reportedly launched vaccination mandates in recent months. These include Cooley LLP, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, Hogan Lovells, Fenwick & West LLP, Hueston Hennigan LLP, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.

Two of these firms, Davis Wright Tremaine and Hogan Lovells, said Friday their policies apply to employees who work in the office, although Michael Maddigan, office managing partner of Hogan Lovells' Los Angeles office, said the firm will be reassessing whether "vaccinations will be required for office entry" in mid- to late-August.

But Brown said Meyers Nave's plan is to require all employees to get vaccinated - whether they work on-site or not.

"I don't want people to say, 'I'm not going to get the vaccine because I'm working from home.' We're going to apply it equally," said Brown, who is based in San Diego.

In recent months, Brown said, Meyers Nave has tried to encourage employees to get vaccinated with incentives like lotteries and even money, but those efforts have not been successful enough in all of the offices. Part of the firm's new policy will focus on education and morale so employees understand they are not being punished with the mandate, Brown said, adding she is sympathetic to the concerns of those who are reluctant to get vaccinated.

"I happen to be an African American woman," she said. "In San Diego... the number of African Americans who got the vaccine is very low. I understand people feel fearful about it because of historical issues... but I still want to encourage people to get the vaccine because it does work."

Several law firms told the Daily Journal they do not have vaccination mandates in place. One of these firms, Horvitz & Levy LLP, has been discouraging unvaccinated employees from coming into the office, said firm spokesperson Julia Furtak. About 95% of the firm's employees have received vaccinations, and other firms that don't have mandates may also have high vaccination rates, Furtak said.

Maddigan said more than 70% of Hogan Lovells' employees in the Americas have voluntarily confirmed they are fully vaccinated.

Furtak said a future vaccination mandate is not off the table for Horvitz & Levy, adding members of the firm planned to return to the office in September or October, but are now reconsidering the move.

Amid new vaccination mandates by federal, state, and local governments for public employees last week, a number of large employers in California - including Facebook, Google, Netflix, Uber and Lyft - have followed suit.

Brown said it was the developing science on COVID-19, rather than mandates by other employers, that motivated Meyers Nave to pursue its own vaccination mandate. But the growing list of employers launching the mandates has been helpful, since having such a mandate requires navigating challenges like accommodating employees who are entitled to medical and religious exemptions under state and federal law.

"The thing is, we don't have to reinvent the wheel," Brown said. "There are a lot of sample policies out there."

Nicole Tyau contributed to this story.