We polled leading South Florida law firms to understand how (and why) they’re asking their attorneys and staff to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
By Dan Roe Daily Business Review | May 28, 2021
At the time of this writing, 38% of Floridians are fully vaccinated from COVID-19. In the legal community, that number is likely higher — all of the firm leaders we’ve spoken to over the past month have said most of their attorneys and staff got the vaccine at their first chance. But getting to 100%, or close enough to achieve herd immunity (the Cleveland Clinic puts the figure at 70% to 85%), often means encouraging people who don’t want the COVID-19 vaccine for various reasons. Some are religiously opposed, and others worry it could cause complications with underlying conditions.
Perhaps the biggest unvaccinated cohort, according to firm leaders, exists outside of those two justifications. Some folks simply don’t want the vaccine, for reasons including mistrust in its rapid development or the notion that they don’t need it. Mixing fully vaccinated and unvaccinated employees is a topic on nearly every firm leader’s mind as many return to the office after more than a year of remote work. To help you negotiate the issue, we brought together a handful of local firm leaders to discuss how they came up with their vaccine policies and how those policies affect daily life at the firm.
Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman
The 77-attorney law firm with three South Florida offices (and one in Tampa) is requiring all employees to get vaccinated prior to returning to the office on June 1, except for those with a medical ‘risk exemption’ or ‘sincerely held religious beliefs,’ said managing director Mitchell Burnstein.
“We did have a couple of folks that didn’t fall within these categories, who weren’t comfortable getting the vaccine,” Burnstein said in an interview. “We will accommodate people that have one of these exemptions, but that’s as far as we’re willing to go.”
Those employees may still work in the office, Burnstein said, but they’ll be required to wear masks, socially distance themselves from colleagues, and won’t be able to use common areas as liberally as fully vaccinated employees (who won’t be required to wear masks).
[…]
Mark Migdal & Hayden
The 14-lawyer Miami litigation boutique has all but one of its employees vaccinated, said founding partner Etan Mark earlier this month.
“I guess personally I’m encouraging everyone to get vaccinated in life, not just at my firm,” said Mark. “And I’m certainly encouraging all of my colleagues and partners and staff at the firm to get vaccinated because I think that that’s a good thing for them to do.”
