Earlier this month Law Society chief Lucy Scott-Moncrieff caused some raised eyebrows when she claimed that the legal profession is “very well suited to flexible working”. It’s easy to say such things, of course, but what’s it like to oversee a flexible working regime in practice? Nicky Richmond, managing partner of London law firm Brecher, which employs more than 50% women, tells us about it – and admits sympathising with Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who recently banned her staff from working from home…
“I encourage flexible working…but in an ideal world everybody would be in the office every day,” Richmond explains to Legal Cheek duo Alex Aldridge and Kevin Poulter. “Because it is definitely easier to contact people [that way] and just to pop in to [see] your colleagues. If you’re at home, you can’t do that…But I think with technology, and with people who do it properly, it should work – to a point.”
She continues: “I don’t think you can have someone working from home 3-4 days a week – I think that would be too difficult for colleagues. Because nobody works in an isolated way, people work in teams and you really can’t do that when you’re not in the office.”
Listen to the trio chat in 14 snappy minutes of audio (also available on iTunes) below.
Image (since modified) by ‘Mr Thomas’ via Flickr on a Creative Commons license
