Lawyers talking about law firms embracing flexible work

A Look at 10 Law Firms Embracing Flexible Work

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By Adrianne Bibby

In the collective conscious, it may be fair to say that law firms have gotten a bad rap for being traditional, even stuffy, employers. Notorious for long hours, formal dress codes, hard-driving work ethics, and competitiveness, the legal profession has never enjoyed a warm and fuzzy image. However, slowly but steadily, major law firms embracing flexible work are helping transform the landscape.

Recent reports in legal journals like Law360 and Above the Law offer accounts of law firms that are either edging toward remote work options or formalizing policies allowing associates to work virtually. Like other industries, law firms are embracing the idea that associates don’t have to commute to a brick-and-mortar location to be effective. Increasingly, part-time options and more flexible hours are also part of the work flexibility conversation at many law firms, according to an American Bar Association article about changing law firm culture.

What’s driving the trend? A few factors are having an impact. As the ABA article notes, female lawyers, who in the past have faced skepticism and stigma when they seek flexible work options, are demanding better work-life integration (as are some of their male counterparts).

A separate ABA article notes that, for female attorneys, remote work is a popular option at top law firms nationwide. That article cites a story in Working Mother magazine on the state of flexible work at law firms, noting that remote work and reduced hours are offered by all 50 law firms that made Working Mother’s 2017 Best Law Firms list. The magazine and the ABA, which partnered to come up with the list of top law firms for women, highlight the fact that work flexibility is key to attracting and retaining the best employees.

Increasingly, law firms are beginning to see the benefits of flexibility, not just for rank-and-file workers, but for managers, too. Law firms see improvements in areas including worker productivity, engagement, and sustained quality of services offered to clients, the Above the Law report noted. To be sure, there are lots of flexible jobs in the legal sector, not just at law firms, but in local and federal government, at corporations, with nonprofits, and in healthcare, among other industries.

In a recent podcast for the ABA Journal, Sara Sutton, founder of FlexJobs and Remote.co, was optimistic that work traditions that have bound the legal profession are beginning to loosen. “I’m hopeful,” Sutton said. “I believe that, in many ways, the legal industry is obviously a traditional industry, but over the years, we’ve seen more and more law firms offering flexible jobs and remote work opportunities. And I think that these continued examples are showing that working from home is starting to take hold.”

Still, there are hurdles for law firms embracing flexible work. The latest annual Law Firm Flexibility Benchmarking Survey by the Diversity and Flexibility Alliance found that while 26 of 28 large law firms surveyed have formalized their flexible work policies, fewer than 9% of attorneys take advantage of flexible options like job sharing and alternative schedules. While generally underrepresented in the legal profession, women lawyers comprise the majority of workers using flexible benefits, the survey found.

Even legal organizations like the Philadelphia Bar Association have adopted work models for alternative work arrangements including job sharing, flextime, and working from home. And as law firms move from informal to formal remote work arrangements, many are working to ensure that home-based employees have the technology they need to do their jobs as well as they would in the office, an article in The American Lawyer noted.

Our list below shows that some law firms embracing flexible work are farther along the path than others. At these law firms, the spectrum of flexible work options ranges from pilot programs to fully fledged work flexibility that’s available to all attorneys and other professional employees.

Here are 10 law firms embracing flexible work:

1. Baker McKenzie. A global law firm with offices in 47 countries, Baker McKenzie was founded in 1949, and today employs 13,000 people. Baker McKenzie’s bAgile program, launched in March 2017, offers flexible options for all the firm’s attorneys and business professionals across North America. The bAgile program offers four flexible work options: remote; alternative schedule; “less than full-time”; and “time out,” an extension of an existing leave or an unpaid leave of absence for “family, personal or development reasons.”

2. Jackson Lewis. Founded in 1948, Jackson Lewis employs more than 800 attorneys working in cities across the U.S. Specializing in workplace litigation, Jackson Lewis has been recognized as a “Gold Standard Firm” by the Women in Law Empowerment Forum. Already committed to flexible job opportunities, Jackson Lewis recently moved to offer an “as needed” remote work option, formalizing an existing policy that had been in place for some time.

3. Greenberg Traurig. Greenberg Traurig employs 2,000 attorneys and has offices across the U.S., as well as in Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. Hilarie Bass, the firm’s co-president and president-elect of the American Bar Association, set the tone in a Miami Herald article, noting she “intends to work from wherever she sits.” In a separate Herald article, Bass says: “The challenge is finding a way to maximize employee productivity without losing out on the important benefits of mentoring, training, teamwork and client service that require physical presence.” She added that “a limited pilot program for telecommuting” was underway.

4. Linklaters. Founded in 1838 and headquartered in the U.K., Linklaters’ staff includes more than 2,000 lawyers in 20 countries. To test the waters on work flexibility, Linklaters is piloting a program in its German offices designed to offer associates better work-life balance. The deal: Work less, earn less. In exchange for a reduced workweek of 40 hours, associates must also agree to a corresponding pay cut. The idea is that reliable working hours will give participants better balance outside of their careers.

5. McDermott Will & Emery. Founded and headquartered in Chicago, McDermott Will & Emery offers expertise across a broad range of legal areas, including finance, intellectual property, and white-collar defense. Since 2014, McDermott Will & Emery has offered a “right to request flexible working” option to any employee who has worked for the firm for at least 26 weeks. Previously, the policy applied primarily on a more case-by-case, “prescriptive” basis. Managers are required to respond to an employee’s request for flexibility within three months.

6. Morgan Lewis. A global firm, Morgan Lewis was founded in Philadelphia in 1873, and today employs more than 2,000 legal professionals in offices around the world. In May 2017, Morgan Lewis launched its associate remote working program, allowing associates to work virtually one or two days a week. Eligibility for the program begins in their third year of employment with the firm. The program’s launch followed “a highly successful and extensive beta test, which confirmed continued and strong associate productivity, availability, and engagement from participants,” the company said.

7. O’Melveny & Myers. Topping the list of 10 Best Law Firms to Work for in 2016 published by Forbes, the magazine noted that employees “are fans of the … policies regarding remote work or flex-time.” O’Melveny & Myers has also been named a “Best Law Firms for Women” by Working Mother and Flex-Time Lawyers. The firm’s “CustOMMize” work flexibility program offers flexibility including telecommuting, job sharing, and “Bridges,” a two-year sabbatical program.

8. Reed Smith. Established in 1877, Reed Smith is a global law practice that employs more than 1,700 attorneys in 27 offices across three continents. According to a post on Bloomberg Law’s Big Law Business blog, “approximately 10 percent of the firm’s attorneys have some kind of alternative schedule—be it working remotely, at reduced hours, or sharing offices.” The firm’s largest office, in London, recently launched an “Agile Working Policy,” designed to allow employees “a more ad-hoc approach to varying their hours and/or location.”

9. Shearman & Sterling. Headquartered in New York City, Shearman & Sterling was founded in 1873, and today has more than 850 attorneys working from offices in the U.S. and internationally. At Shearman & Sterling, a company policy allows associates to work remotely two days a month in the interest of helping employees find better work-life balance. “We believe this initiative will have a positive impact on the firm’s culture,” Shearman & Sterling officials said.

10. White & Case. Providing legal expertise to corporations, governments, and the financial sector, White & Case is based in New York City and employs nearly 1,900 attorneys at locations worldwide. Top ranked by American Lawyer for its diverse staff, White & Case joined the ranks of law firms embracing flexible work with its “agile working policy,” allowing attorneys and staff to work remotely on an ad hoc basis.

No doubt there are other law firms of all sizes that are weighing whether to increase flexible options, or that have already embraced them outright. For managers in other industries, what’s transpiring in the legal sector—one of the most entrenched sectors in the marketplace—can provide an instructive template. Technology and the demands of workers, the key forces driving law firms embracing flexible work, will continue to bring their weight to bear on the changing flexible workforce.

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