UK top 100 firm Michelmores is the latest commercial law firm on both sides of the Atlantic to unveil an agile working scheme that builds on the ‘lessons learned’ from remote working throughout the Covid-19 pandemic in a bid to give its lawyers more freedom to work in the office or remotely. 

The Exeter-based firm said the 12-month pilot programme, set to kick off in October, will focus on trusting its employees to choose the ‘best way’ for themselves to work whilst continuing to deliver consistent legal advice to its clients. 

The agile working scheme was developed following a firm-wide survey conducted during the pandemic, which found 87% of Michelmores lawyers and staff believed flexible working arrangements would play a key role in the effective delivery of legal services even after the UK legal industry begins its gradual return to normalcy following the lifting of local restrictions.

A further 88% of Michelmores’ employees confirmed agile working offered important work-life balance benefits, while the firm added that its flexible working pilot programme would also lend itself to reducing its environmental impact. 

Michelmores said it expects the frequency of remote working will vary depending on job roles, with team leaders set to take on accountability for consulting with their colleagues to decide what share of remote working would best serve their client bases. 

Tim Richards, managing partner at Michelmores, said the firm intends to continue its collaborative approach to client work by keeping offices open as ‘collaboration hubs’ to offer its lawyers and clients the ability to continue face-to-face work should the situation call for it. 

“Being agile is key to meeting both the needs of our people and our clients: we remain a people-focused business,” he said. “We are also committed to finding new ways of working which continue to reduce our impact on the environment, through greater use of technology to conduct business, combined with being more intentional about decisions on business travel in the future.”

The scheme will be subject to firm-wide surveys and feedback workshops in the coming months to allow for refinements and improvements to the programme. 

Colette Stevens, Michelmores’ HR director, added: “We have consciously made the decision not to be prescriptive about the percentage of time to be spent in any particular working environment, there is no ‘one size fits all’, each individual and each team will have different needs. We are placing our trust in our people to make the best choice on how to organise their work.”

Michelmores currently operates three regional bases in London, Bristol and Exeter and focuses on working with individuals and families, entrepreneurs, family and privately-owned businesses and corporations in the UK and internationally. 

Earlier this year, fellow regional firm TLT launched a comparable ‘fully flexible’ long-term working approach it said would place it among the most progressive in the legal industry in terms of workplace flexibility, supported by a multi-million pound investment programme to develop a raft of new tech solutions to support the transition to its new way of working.