The number of Linklaters lawyers enrolled on the firm's fixed-hours, reduced-pay career path has more than doubled in less than three years and won praise from partners.

The alternative career path, 'YourLink', which launched in 2017, offers associates, managing associates, and counsel across the firm's German offices the option to sign up to a fixed 40-hour week, on reduced pay, to give them a better work/life balance.

Twenty lawyers have now taken up the offer, according to Linklaters' head of European HR and strategy Thomas Schmidt. The number is over twice the original cohort.

Adoptees of the career path are based across all five of Linklaters' German offices in Dusseldorf, Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, and Hamburg.

According to Schmidt, the current number represents around 5-6% of the total lawyers employed in the German practices. The majority are associates but the figure includes one counsel and several managing associates. More men have taken up the opportunity than women in the business, with 13 compared to seven.

One corporate partner in the firm's German practice described the scheme as "a great success," despite having initial misgivings.

"I was originally very critical and negative about it because I thought, 1) no one would be interested in this – if you go to work for a Magic Circle firm, you're prepared to work very hard and 2) I didn't think it would fit into our culture and mindset," he said. "But now we get very talented people that we wouldn't have otherwise got if we didn't have this. It's also had a very positive impact on the firm's culture."

Currently, there are no plans to roll out the YourLink model to other practices outside of Europe. However, Schmidt told Law.com International other initiatives are being discussed.

In December, Linklaters extended its parental leave policy to allow any U.K. employee whose partner is having a baby, adopting a child or becoming a parent through surrogacy to take 12 weeks of fully paid leave.