Fourteen months and counting. That’s how long many attorneys at most law firms have been working from home, making that long commute from the bedroom to the desk in the room down the hall. And yet, soon enough we’ll all be back in the car or on the train, listening to podcasts, checking our mobile devices, or taking calls on the way to and from work, and eventually meeting clients and peers in person.

As the COVID-19 pandemic abates, the push to return to the office, which began with a trickle of managing partner emails and scattered reopenings, will quickly accelerate. That return is fraught with risk that law firms underestimate at their own peril. Confusion, internal strife, low morale, inefficiencies and even potential legal troubles lurk for firms that aren’t already planning not just when to return to the office, but what that return will look like and how it will be communicated.