Associate Brendan Sasso was quoted in “How 3 Big Law First-Year Associates Are Adapting to Their New Virtual Programs and What Their Firms Are Planning for the Next Class,” an article in Business Insider,* regarding his experience working remotely as a first-year associate.

At 8 a.m. on November 2, Brendan Sasso put on a button-up shirt and logged into Webex, sweatpants safely out of view. It was his first day at Perkins Coie, which, like most law firms in the past year, kicked off its first-year associate programs virtually.

"Starting remotely was a little weird because you can't naturally meet and interact with new people, which I was really excited about," he said.

"We don't really have those water cooler conversations that can lead to relationship building," said Brendan. "It is a little harder to get to know other people working on interesting cases."

As a remedy, firms are tasking workflow coordinators and associate mentors with more direct outreach, said Kari Anne Tuohy, Perkins Coie's senior manager of attorney personnel.

*Subscription-based publication