Dallas Firms — Why the “Return to Office” Debate Misses the Point
The Wrong Question
Dallas has become ground zero for the “return-to-office” tug-of-war.
Downtown towers are buzzing again, Class A office leases are climbing, and leadership teams are once again debating: Should we bring everyone back?
But here’s the truth: the real question isn’t where your people work — it’s how well they perform wherever they are.
Hybrid, remote, or in-office setups can all succeed (or fail) depending on the systems underneath them. Yet many firms are still treating office presence as a proxy for productivity.
What’s Really Driving the Debate in Dallas
The Dallas legal market is distinct — entrepreneurial, fast-growing, and still heavily relationship-driven. According to CBRE’s 2025 Dallas-Fort Worth Office Market Report, law firms now make up nearly 8% of downtown leasing activity, with average Class A rents approaching $40 per square foot. That’s a lot of overhead for a “symbol of culture.”
For many firms, the push to return is financial justification disguised as cultural alignment. Leaders want to see value from expensive space — but visibility doesn’t equal engagement.
Others resist returning because remote work finally gave them focus, flexibility, and access to talent beyond I-635.
Both sides have valid points — but both are missing the bigger one.
The Real Issue: Visibility, Not Geography
Firms don’t lose performance because people are home; they lose it because they can’t see what’s getting done.
Without structure, remote work exposes the cracks that have always existed:
Weak processes
Undefined accountability
Outdated technology
Overreliance on hallway conversations
Those problems existed long before COVID — the office just hid them.
Culture Is a System, Not a Location
Culture isn’t coffee stations and hallway chatter.
It’s clarity + consistency + communication.
A healthy culture shows up when:
Expectations are clear.
Feedback loops are fast.
Wins are visible and celebrated.
That can happen in Uptown, at home in Plano, or on Zoom at 9 p.m. If your systems reinforce connection and accountability, your culture travels.
What Hybrid Firms Are Getting Right
Some Dallas firms are quietly nailing the balance. They’ve stopped arguing about presence and started engineering performance.
They’re doing three things well:
Clear guardrails.
Teams know which meetings are mandatory in-person, and which are virtual. There’s predictability without rigidity.
Consistent metrics.
Leaders track productivity and client satisfaction instead of office attendance.
Intentional touchpoints.
When people do come in, it’s for collaboration, training, or strategy — not for sitting on separate Zoom calls.
These firms are seeing higher retention and stronger engagement than those forcing attendance for attendance’s sake.
The Data Doesn’t Lie
A recent Thomson Reuters Institute study found that law firms offering flexible work options retained attorneys 22% longer than those mandating full-time office presence. Meanwhile, hybrid firms outperformed peers on associate satisfaction and burnout scores by nearly 30%.
Translation: the office alone doesn’t create accountability — leadership does.
What Leadership Should Be Asking
Instead of “how many days should people be in the office?” ask:
How clear are our team’s expectations?
Do we have visibility into productivity regardless of location?
Are we measuring outcomes or activity?
Does our office space actually support collaboration, or just tradition?
The answers to those questions will tell you far more about performance than a swipe-card report ever could.
How a COO Builds Accountability Anywhere
A strong COO or Fractional COO makes location almost irrelevant by putting structure around communication and follow-through.
They:
Design hybrid policies that balance flexibility with accountability.
Build dashboards that track KPIs in real time.
Establish meeting rhythms that keep teams aligned and visible.
Clarify ownership so remote doesn’t mean invisible.
The result: leaders regain control without micromanagement — and employees gain trust without ambiguity.
The Bottom Line
Dallas firms don’t need to pick a side in the return-to-office debate.
They need to pick a system that works.
Because the firms winning right now aren’t the ones with everyone in the office — they’re the ones with everyone on the same page.
At ING Collaborations, I help Dallas law firms design operational systems that make accountability and culture work from anywhere. If your team’s debating office space instead of outcomes, it’s time to refocus on what really drives performance.