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Expert opinion
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Practical Tools:
In the report VWL has produced two practical tools to fill the gap in the information available to assist partners in establishing and managing successful flexible work arrangements for their legal staff. The tools consist of a flexible work proposal (business case) and a day to day plan. They are designed to assist both the partner and the lawyer to help establish a flexible work arrangement that will work for the partner, the team, the lawyer and the law firm. The business case is useful for testing whether the arrangement is feasible - whether it will work for the business and the lawyer.
The 360° Review:
This report builds on the findings of VWL's last major piece of research prepared for VWL by Human Captial, Deloitte - A 360° Review: Flexible work arrangements. Confronting myths and realities in the legal profession (360° Review). The 360° Review, published in November 2005 recorded that one of the biggest challenges for successful flexible working arrangements was not clients or colleagues but the support of the partner/manager of the lawyer working flexibly. The success of a flexible work arrangement is directly linked to the level and quality of support provided by the partner/manager managing the arrangement.
The Workshops:
VWL ran a series of targeted workshops with its sponsor law firms to better understand the experiences of those partners and managers. Before conducting the workshops, there was anecdotal evidence that while recognising that lawyers could work flexibly many law firm partners believed there were barriers to that occurring in their particular area of legal practice. VWL deliberately set up two separate workshops - one for the transactional partners and one for the litigation partners and explored issues surrounding the management of lawyers with flexible work practices. The third workshop was with the HR directors/manager who provided some fantastic insights and ideas in relation to flexible work arrangements.
Where the environment that lawyers work in has been developed for people who are available 24/7, it is clearly easier to work full time and to have a full time team around you. However with a growing number of lawyers working in firms with a flexible work arrangement it is clear that full time work is not what many lawyers want. The workshops revealed that flexible work arrangements are accessed and available to lawyers in all areas of practice. It also became evident that a firm is not doing a lawyer any favours if it agrees to a work arrangement which it is not committed to, which cannot work for the business and that has not been thought through.
The Conversations:
The partners identified they had difficulty in the initial conversations with a lawyer requesting a flexible work arrangement. The practical tools in the report are designed to provide a framework for the critical but sometimes challenging conversations between the partner and lawyer which need to occur when a flexible work arrangement is being established and monitored. Those conservations could include:
- What is feasible
- Level of involvement the lawyer wants to have in the workplace
- What client responsibilities the lawyer will continue to have and how will these relationships be managed
- Both parties' expectations about what will occur when the lawyer is not in the office
- Pay - what is the impact on the lawyer's pay will it be a simple pro rata or is it some other arrangement and what about extra hours/days
- Impact on team.
Review:
No two arrangements will be the same so the more these expectations, challenges and practical considerations can be worked through, the more chance the arrangement will succeed. However, these arrangements are not static and should be reviewed (using these tools) on a regular basis, challenges can then be identified and realistic workable solutions established.
The report is available via the VWL website at: Victorian Women Lawyers.