How new laws around flexible working will impact culture and diversity - Hannah Strawbridge

However, lawyers do not need to work from an office. I know this because in 2019 I set up Han Law which has operated with lawyers working fully flexibly and remotely on a consultancy basis, even before Covid changed our working patterns.

Compared to our previous 9 to 5 office roles, we have found so many benefits to working in this way, I struggle to understand why more firms don’t do it.

Our lawyers enjoy work as they are more efficient and have more time. They have more energy foregoing a commute. They have more time to get fresh air and exercise during their day. They are less stressed as they are available for their families. In terms of financial reward, they earn more and have to work less, as our overheads are lower.

Our clients get a better service as our lawyers are happy to work around them and their own lives, rather than that of the business they work for. They save financially as we don’t have the overheads of a swanky office which keeps costs down.

From a business growth perspective, remote working has enabled us to tap into a nationwide and European market.

Although statistics show that there are more female trainee and junior lawyers than men, female lawyers at leadership level (partners or board members) drop off to between 20-30 per cent.

Contrastingly, our business consists of experienced female lawyers in the majority because of remote, flexible working and our lawyers say that they had few female leaders to inspire them to progress within their previous firm.

If the traditional ‘big law’ firms are going to retain staff and genuinely promote a more diverse leadership, they must surely ask the question of their lawyers whether they want to work in the office, remotely, or a combination of both. It still feels that, for many firms, this would be far too radical a move. There is a lack of trust, firms are fearful of losing control.

It is hard not to conclude that with every decision it makes which has a distinct whiff of Victorina, the traditional law firm is an ageing dinosaur which is nearing extinction.

It’s also become clear that times are changing, and employees have more power. Lawyers are becoming aware that the perceived ‘risk’ of leaving that culture isn’t a risk at all, for them. It is though, a risk for the firms that the greatest people they have – those with technical ability, but more importantly, people skills and that ‘something about them’ which is hard to define, will be leaving in droves. And they are already.

So, how does this background of a, dare I say it, archaic and outdated, culture fit in with the government’s new plans to make flexible working the default?

On December 5, 2022, it was announced that millions of employees will soon be able to request flexible working from day one of their employment. Flexible working can mean employees working in a hybrid way from home or in the office, it can mean job-sharing, flexitime, or working compressed hours.

James Dyson, founder of Dyson and a billionaire, has condemned plans to extend employees’ rights to work from home as ‘economically illiterate and staggeringly self-defeating’.

I could spend all day talking about why his statements appear to be without foundation or evidence, but he is missing a key point and I am surprised that broadsheet newspapers have missed it too. The new right to flexible working from day one of employment isn’t the right to ‘work from home’, although it can be. As I’ve set out above, flexible working is so much more than that. There is no reason why James Dyson can’t organise his staff and allow flexibility around the jobs they do.

For him to say that this policy is ‘economically illiterate’ because it has been brought in at a time of recession ignores the research around the positive impact for the economy of a diverse workforce and leaders. More diversity increases efficiencies and profitability in business. Flexible working helps move diversity forward.

His statement also ignores the rights of employees and the impact on a recession for them. More flexibility for employees may help to reduce childcare costs. It may also save commuting costs. The right to work flexibly is likely to increase employees’ wellbeing at a difficult time.

The new law will positively impact employees’ workplace rights, their wellbeing and the economy, if employers are willing to embrace change positively and lead with empathy. If they don’t, we expect to see more employment tribunal claims being brought which will be costly for the taxpayer and for business.

Hannah Strawbridge is CEO and founder of Han Law Co.