Barnes & Thornburg; Vanessa King; Brendan Sasso This story is available exclusively to Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. After an initial delay due to the pandemic, law firms' first-year associate classes are under way. Some associates say the virtual workplace has given them more 'face time' with clients. A few law firms are beginning to consider in-person start dates for the year ahead. 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.