Remote work in law firms comes with a unique set of strengths and challenges. The strengths include an expanded talent pool, cost savings, heightened appeal, and increased productivity. Challenges, on the other hand, include diluted work culture, difficulty striking a healthy work-life balance, decreased collaboration, and ethical issues. Solutions to these challenges range from implementing the right-to-disconnect rule and enhancing confidentiality and security to staying intentional about collaboration.
Having a competent and committed workforce can be instrumental in supporting your firm’s overall vision, irrespective of the mode of work. Similarly, attorney candidates can attain job satisfaction and build an illustrious career in the legal field by joining a law firm with an effective remote work policy.
Astor Professional Search is your trusted legal recruiter whether you are looking for a legal job or top legal talent to join your workforce. Call (312) 781-9000 to request a consultation with one of our experienced legal recruiters.
Nothing changed the world and people’s way of life like the global pandemic. Before COVID, the legal fraternity relied heavily on in-person interactions. Everything from how attorneys dress to their demeanor to statute mastery had been previously used as markers of their competence and legal acumen. Until 2020, no one would have imagined virtual settlement negotiations, court sessions, and even all-out virtual civil jury trials.
After the dust settled, existing and newer law firms opted to maintain the remote working system. Others embraced a hybrid system, combining remote work with some in-office work. Either way, we can safely say remote work is here to stay. The following are some benefits of the remote work concept.
Without geographical constraints, firms can hire talent from anywhere in the world. This is especially beneficial for small firms that would like specialized services from legal minds but lack the budget to bring them on board. A consultancy arrangement offers a win-win arrangement for these firms. The same goes for firms needing expert witnesses for cases.
Remote working allows you to work for your dream firm in a different state without relocating. This working arrangement expands your options, whether you are job hunting or using legal recruiters.
Before adopting remote work, law offices served as the yardstick for gauging the competency and success of a law firm. In short, the bigger, more lavish the office was, the better. Unfortunately, you pay a premium for prime, large real estate, and the overheads follow suit.
Working from home has lessened the need to have these grand office spaces that eat into firms’ profitability. With a firm’s workforce operating from home, all that’s needed is a much smaller space for the few in-person meetings you might have and to give the aspect of a physical office space. This arrangement allows you to make cost savings on rent and utilities, insurance, and maintenance.
Surveys conducted on remote work show that 98% of employees would like to work remotely at least some of the time. What this preference tells employers is that having this option will attract a broader talent pool and increase employee retention rates. Remote work provides employees with flexibility and autonomy. These aspects can lower your turnover rates.
A study published in the Chicago Sun Times revealed that Chicago driving commutes were among the most expensive in the country, with workers losing $8,000 annually sitting in traffic. The study also pegged the average commute at an hour and four minutes.
A remote work plan allows workers to bypass this commute alongside the frustration of getting stuck in traffic and getting right to work at their desks. The outcomes are increased punctuality, improved equality for people who find it hard to travel, and adequate rest for employees.
These factors increase productivity. Additionally, reduced travel is better for the environment and saves employees the money they would have otherwise spent on fuel or fare.
Remote work is not without its downsides for legal practitioners and law firms. Challenges of this work arrangement include:
Law firm partners and managers usually have an idea of the work culture they are trying to create. This is exemplified in the decor, the hiring process, onboarding, in-person interactions, and workplace events.
With attorneys working from home, having a unified work culture becomes much harder to instill and maintain, and a firm loses some of its cohesiveness. Similarly, because work culture matters is often on the list of questions to ask a law firm in an interview, a firm that’s unclear on its culture can edge out excellent candidates.
There is something to be said about a workplace where you go in, do your hours, then leave work and go home to unwind. Unfortunately, many remote workers allow work to bleed into their personal lives because, after all, they aren’t going into the office.
So they can check that email, finish drafting submissions as they have dinner, and do some reading over the weekend. While this can improve productivity in the short term, the inability to disconnect from work can lead to burnout and hurt interpersonal relationships.
Traditional law offices allow for unlimited collaboration during the day. These brainstorming sessions allow team members to be creative and get new insights on different matters.
Additionally, office working allows for mentorship through sit-ins and research requests to junior employees. Remote work hinders these collaborative and mentorship efforts.
Information that clients share with attorneys is deemed confidential. That’s why we have the attorney-client privilege to protect these interactions. Working from home or while traveling brings in some vulnerabilities as far as client data is concerned. For instance, workers carry home client files or access them online outside the strict protections available in traditional law offices. These actions pose a threat to the confidentiality of client data.
Another consideration is reduced supervision and mentorship from senior attorneys. On top of being detrimental to a firm, it’s harmful to junior advocates who miss in-person supervision, mentoring, and sit-in opportunities.
Many older and new firms want to maintain a remote work system because of the positives it brings to the firm and its attorneys. These benefits can, however, only be fully realized by having strategies in place to counter the downsides of remote work in the legal field. These strategies include:
While working after hours and weekends might be useful to the firm, the social and health impact of staying ‘’on-call’’ takes its toll sooner or later. One thing law firms can do is implement law firm remote work policies that support a healthy work-life balance. One good example of this is the ”right to disconnect’’ rule.
This rule allows employees to switch off work devices. Firms can go as far as ensuring employees are not contacted after hours, on weekends, on holidays, and during their annual leave. This can improve the work-life balance for lawyers in the long term.
The trade-off with having lower overheads is the need to boost a firm’s security to protect client information. Remote work increases your risk of data security breaches through unsecured devices and networks.
Implementing robust cybersecurity measures, including secure cloud storage, VPNs, encrypted communications, and stratified information access, can help bolster data security. These measures can prove helpful if your staff is familiar with them and put them into practice. So, rigorous security training will come in handy.
Numerous virtual collaboration tools for lawyers to help legal firms bridge the gap between remote and office work are available in the legal market. These tools will support one-on-one mentoring sessions, departmental calls, and video call meetings.
Modern collaboration tools will also support less serious events like happy hours and online team-building games. These activities promote both work and some fun and camaraderie. These aspects will support work activities and help establish and maintain a work culture.
Want to know how to find a work-from-home lawyer job? Or do you have a few slots in your firm to fill? A seasoned legal recruiter can help you secure a job at a firm that offers remote work options. The recruiter can also help your law firm find and hire lawyers looking for flexible work arrangements, such as working from home.
At Astor Professional Search, we take the time to understand your career goals before matching you with a role that would suit you. For employers, we strive to understand who the best candidates are and how they comprehensively fit into your law firm. By doing this, we can filter out firms and candidates and only send you those that closely align with your requirements. Contact us whether you are a law firm looking for remote attorney candidates or an attorney who prefers working from home.
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