Law firm partners prefer to work from the office while juniors favour working from home
Most lawyers are in favour of a hybrid model of working, which would see workers come into their offices for at least one day a week, according to a poll from legal recruitment firm Major, Lindsey & Africa.
Meanwhile only 10 per cent would prefer to work entirely remotely.
However the figures revealed a split between senior men working in law firms, and women, juniors, and general counsels.
The figures show that men working as partners in law firms were significantly more likely to want to come back into offices, compared to women and more junior colleagues working at the same firms.
Almost three-quarters (74 per cent) of lawyers polled said they would like to come into the office at least one day a week, while a fifth of those surveyed said they would like to come into the office every day, the figures show.
At the same time, the poll found that more than two-thirds (67 per cent) of lawyers said that remote working is just as productive as being in the office, while more lawyers said productivity had improved rather than declined.
However, partners in law firms were almost twice as likely to agree with their companies’ work-from-home (WfH) policies than associates, as 60 per cent of partners compared to just 34 per cent of associates said their firm’s WfH policy aligned with their own thinking.
In-house lawyers were also 10 per cent more likely to want to go fully remote than partners working in firms.
Men were also more likely to want to return to offices than women, as 51 per cent of men said they would like to come in three days a week compared to just 33 per cent of women.
Hybrid model
The poll of 1,230 lawyers found that an arrangement that 30 per cent of people would like to come into the office one or two days a week, while 28 per cent would prefer to come in three or four days each week.
By contrast, 12 per cent of lawyers would prefer to come into office only once or twice a month.
Meanwhile, 67 per cent of respondents said the Omicron variant had forced their company to amend its policy.
Nonetheless, lawyers responding to the poll said remote working has harmed trainees, as 67 per cent said they had seen steep declines in mentorship since the start of the pandemic, while 59 per cent said they had seen a drop off in training opportunities.