Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) is set to roll out remote working across all of its London practice groups, following a trial earlier this year.

The move, which will take effect next month, will invite all fee earners to work from home up to one day a week. It follows a three-month trial earlier this year involving a number of partners and other lawyers, in which 82% opted to work from home during the trial.

According to the firm, feedback from the trial found that 89% of those taking part experienced an improved work-life balance, with 75% saying agile working enhanced their productivity.

The move is a continuation of the firm's 'working smarter' concept introduced in 2012, which seeks to incorporate contractual flexible working arrangements within the firm, as well as less formal agile working that gives people more control over when, how and where they work on an ad hoc basis.

Ian Cox, managing partner for the UK and US, said:"By rolling agile working out to all the London fee-earning groups and giving people more control over when, where and how they work, we hope to encourage more openness to different ways of working and to create a more diverse range of role models who work flexibly in the business."

Research undertaken by Legal Week Intelligence for the 2015 Legal Week Best Employers Report highlighted the importance of work/life balance to employees, with 93% of respondents judging it as an important measure of satisfaction.

In response to this demand, growing numbers of firms have been introducing flexible working for lawyers in recent years. Slaughter and May is currently mid-way through a second pilot of its flexible-working scheme for associates, while Simmons & Simmons introduced flexible working for junior lawyers in the UK in December 2014.