It is clear that Covid-19 had a huge effect on employees and the workplace, not least of which was moving most office-based professions into a remote workplace, almost overnight.
For those in the legal profession, moving to remote work was not the issue. In fact, Eavan Saunders, managing partner of Dentons Ireland LLP, says that the profession was well-placed to make the move.
“It couldn’t have been easier. We all had laptops and phones, so from a technology perspective, it was very straightforward. We already had Teams, Zoom and a variety of other technology to facilitate the video cons, so there was zero disruption to clients.” There were many positives from the move to remote, and then later to a hybrid model, she says.
Hybrid working was already popular and the transition in that direction has been accelerated, she says.
Saunders believes that any potential trickiness lies in the areas of talent retention and development. “It’s terms of talent development, it’s a very interesting question for us,” she says. “Our profession, to a large extent, is not an intuitive job. It’s an experienced, learned skill.
“You can have the best and smartest graduates in the world, but what we do is quite complex, and it takes quite a long time and a lot of experience before they can do the job on a standalone basis. It takes many years. That learning element was quite challenging for junior lawyers to do remotely.”
Progressing up the career ladder is where hybrid working may fall down, says Saunders. “Learning by osmosis is a big part of doing your time as a junior lawyer and trainee, and there is a lot of shadowing and listening, and asking questions of colleagues. That’s not easy to do from your kitchen. People will be shy to ring up a partner and ask a question in their home, and they’d be much more likely to ask someone by swinging past their desk.” This has some negative career progression implications, and that needs to be acknowledged, she says.
People will be shy to ring up a partner and ask a question in their home, and they'd be much more likely to ask someone by swinging past their desk
Having people understand the ramifications of being absent from the office and how that may impact career progression is a key consideration that needs to be addressed, so that people deciding to work from home, whether full- or part-time, understand that it could impact their careers and that they “make an informed decision about whether remote working is the right solution for them in the round”.
What is it to be a senior person in a law firm? “It isn’t just about churning legal advice or turning documents. It’s a very different thing. There are a number of important internal roles in terms of mentoring, listening to people, and ensuring an efficient and pleasant interface between different departments and teams.”
With the move to hybrid work, people are focused on outputs, turning documents, working on transactions, and getting them closed so all of those softer contributions suffer dramatically.
“That doesn’t matter when you’re a young lawyer, because that’s what you’re there to do, but if you want to progress in the organisation, there are a whole lot of other ways you need to contribute. You need to do training and mentoring, dealing with the person having some personal problems who needs some time from somebody. And that’s a burden that will fall on those people in the office, that people at home don’t have to bear.
“It’s important for law firms to be clear around what it is going to take to continue to progress and understand that, if you really want to contribute, it could be difficult to do so in an equal way with someone who shows up in the office very day.”