Offering staff the chance to work flexibly has become de riguer for forward-thinking City law firms – but has anyone really found the answer? Sofia Lind reports

At first glance flexible working can seem like a simple issue of giving your staff a shot at achieving that elusive work/life balance. But closer inspection shows that the City's top law firms take different, and at times opposing, views on the pros and cons of flexible working arrangements. Not least of these is whether boosting flexibility is a means to improving female retention, with some firms seeing this as a core reason for such initiatives, while others are wary of making the connection.

However, there is at least consensus that flexible working is not just about working less hours. With four-day week or nine-day fortnight arrangements on the march, the most common mode of flexible working seems by far to be remote working – boosted by new technology – but other new ideas such as lawyer job-sharing are also being tried out.

Flexible dealmakers

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is currently piloting a flexible working scheme in its corporate department. Arrangements include job-sharing between associates, or working reduced or non-traditional hours with a 'buddy' colleague who covers for you when you are not available. The firm is also attempting to formalise offsite working that is already underway.

The one-year pilot, which will be rolled out elsewhere if successful, comes as part of a major review into boosting flexible working led by global human resources (HR) manager Kevin Hogarth.

He says: "All firms recognise that in transactions-based practices there are significant challenges in terms of offering a high level of service to clients while also meeting lawyers' personal needs. We figured that if we can make the scheme work in the corporate practice it will be applicable also to other departments."

At magic circle rival Clifford Chance (CC) the majority of flexible working takes place in non-transactional departments. People partner Laura King says: "In the transactional practices it can be more difficult to strike an appropriate balance. Lawyers don't necessarily want to be away from deals they are running and client timetables can be unpredictable."

One firm that has successfully tried out flexible working in transactional departments is Norton Rose. The top 10 City firm ran a highly-publicised flexible-working scheme during the financial downturn and managed to avoid making any redundancies, unlike most major law firms.

The scheme was influenced by an existing model set up in 2002, when Norton Rose made its voluntary flexible working scheme available to lawyers and staff at all levels, including both males and females.

Talent and development manager Andrew McEachern says: "The experience we had gained from introducing an inclusive flexible working policy early on was one reason behind why we felt we thought we could successfully roll it out as a tool during the economic downturn."

So do lawyers applying a less traditional working pattern have the same chance of promotion? Simmons & Simmons managing associate Anna Rentoul thinks so. As a lawyer in the employment law team at the top 15 City law firm, she has worked flexibly for several years, currently working a four-day week including one day from home.

She says: "I have been promoted since I started working flexibly and still do the same work as before. I feel my career is still on an upward trajectory and my working flexibly has certainly not hindered that. The firm has been supportive and has made me feel very valued."

Rentoul has also had good feedback from her clients.

She says: "There are rarely any practical issues and I have had good feedback from both clients and colleagues. I tend to buddy up with more junior associates so that there is continuity on the matters I am advising on – and my colleagues enjoy that extra responsibility when I am not in the office."

Part-time partnership

Magic circle firm Allen & Overy (A&O) introduced a part-time working scheme for equity partners this year. Head of intellectual property litigation Nicola Dagg is one of the early entrants in the scheme and now works a four-day week, remunerated at 80% of her full equity points.

She says: "The clients have responded very well and in fact some of them work on a similar pattern. It also helps that I am backed up by an extremely talented team that rarely needs to reach out to me on my day off.

"Obviously as a partner you have to have some level of flexibility – but generally I feel that I stay true to working 80% of my previous commitment. The way the scheme is set up there's also a degree of flexibility from the firm's side that if there is a period when I need to work full time I can take that time off in lieu."

In numbers

While A&O is not the only law firm to offer part-time deals to partners, in general, the City's top firms seem to have some way to go in promoting flexible working to lawyers further down the food chain. For the most part, flexible working remains far more common among law firms' support staff than partner-track lawyers.

Typically the UK's top law firms have a single-digit percentage of flexibly working lawyers, while at some firms almost a quarter of support staff work flexibly.

For example, Herbert Smith has six London partners on a part-time flexible working arrangement, or 3.5% of the total partner count. Among associates, the figure is largely similar with 21 associates, or 4.4%, working part time. At consultant and of counsel level the number is significantly higher, at 46.7% and 27.8% respectively.

Among professional support lawyers the percentage is highest, at 73.7%, but the number is also especially high among secretaries where part-time working equates to 24.9%. Overall, 12.3% of total London staff and lawyer population are in a part-time arrangement while 15% have a formal flexible-working arrangement.

Herbert Smith head of diversity and inclusion Carolyn Lee (pictured) says: "There are a whole range of reasons why one might wish to work flexibly but enabling people to do it makes them happier and more emotionally balanced. Removing some stress to allow people to be in a happier place tends to mean that they are more efficient and more motivated in the working space as well. Our policy has always been open to our partners as well. The more senior you are the easier it is to manage your time in that way."

At Herbert Smith, part-time working includes working a four-day week with a 20% pay reduction – but, according to Lee, the arrangement of working a nine-day fortnight with just a 10% cut has become increasingly popular.

By comparison, Norton Rose has just one London partner in a flexible working arrangement, equating to 0.7% of the total partner count in the office but has a higher number of associates (9%)in a flexible working arrangement. Overall, 10.6% of London lawyers and staff work flexibly.

In the magic circle, a relatively high number of Linklaters partners – 5% in London – work flexibly, but only 2% of London associates. CC, meanwhile, has around a dozen partners that work a four-day week. A&O's equity partner scheme, meanwhile, has been successful so far, with 15 partners already taking part.

Female stereotyping

At A&O, the equity partner part-time scheme came as part of ambitions to make female retention a top priority, with the scheme a flagship part of achieving the goal.

Associate director of HR Sasha Hardman, who heads the scheme, says: "This is not a silver bullet to erase the issues facing female retention and promotion – but it is an important tool in our toolkit. With 62% of our lawyer intake female, flexible working is a key issue for us to address."

But not all firms promote their flexible working policies as a female retention tool. At CC's King says: "We are very open about flexible working policies, but don't force take-up. There is research indicating that supporting diversity in general means improvement of retention across the board.† The issue is complex but not necessarily one that should be exclusively tied up with female retention."

Several law firms only introduced flexible working policies in 2002 when the UK introduced legislation surrounding female rights to work flexibly to aid childcare. However firms had to revisit the topic in 2006 when legislation was updated to include care of the elderly, which effectively extended policies to male workers for the first time.

King comments: "Women's groups sometimes cite concerns that linking flexible working solely to female retention can foster a view that women need disproportionately special treatment – a view which might be unhelpful to wider debate about working structures.†There are more females than males who work part time, but this may also be influenced by a legislative framework which inclines towards women being primary care givers."

A UK view

At Linklaters, HR manager Caroline Rawes takes much the same stance as magic circle colleagues at A&O and Freshfields.

"Flexible working is an important issue for everyone, not just women," she says. "It is not just the correct thing to do, but it also makes business sense and it has absolutely helped us retain female lawyers," she adds.

"I think we are in line with the other firms in offering two weeks of paternity leave. However everyone, male and female, is free to take unpaid parental leave."

But several HR managers raise the issue that flexible working is just a plaster on an equality issue that runs much deeper.

Looking outside the UK borders, Stockholm-based legal giant Vinge has made a significant effort to promote flexible working but a major influence lies in legislation promoting shared parenting.

Vinge partner Fredrik Dahl, head of associate issues at the firm, says: "It is now standard among our male lawyers to take six months off after having a child or for the fathers to leave at four to pick up the children from nursery."

At the Swedish firm, that cultural change was much brought about by changes in legislation and internal policies that financially assist males in taking a larger role in childcare.

Dahl says: "It is a long, slow process to improve female partner ratios, but certainly in the last years we have made up as many women as men. Perceptions of what is acceptable change much quicker than you would expect."

At Freshfields, the flexible working pilot programme is gender neutral and not aimed at women, but Hogarth accepts that female retention is a major driver. "Only if we retain a greater proportion of female lawyers do we stand a chance of having more female partners. There has been a stigma from the past that flexible working has become associated with working fewer hours but our consultation recognises that it is not just about reduced hours," he points out.

But DLA Piper HR head Carol Ashton says: "If you want to retain the best talent it is important to be able to show that you are flexible, but it is not a gender thing. We have seen more men become interested in part-time working, including for childcare arrangements, but the fact of life is that by far more women do that, and that is an issue which runs far deeper than the legal sector."

Moving with the times

While law firms agree that the profession must develop with the times and flexible working is here to stay, it is clear that no-one has yet found the ideal solution to the issues it raises.

Herbert Smith's Lee says: "Flexible working is going to be increasingly common. There is a cultural as well as a technological shift towards it which is supported by successful case studies during the economic downturn. With the technology at hand it is possible to make flexible working seamless."

But the City's top law firms will need to step up their game if they want to lead in this area. Even Vinge's Dahl says: "The legal industry is traditionally conservative and we cannot claim that we are at the forefront for these issues."

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