US law firms ask staff to spend more time in the office

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More US law firms are asking staff to come into the office four days a week as the recruitment market for lawyers cools and firms suffer a sharp decline in dealmaking due to the uncertain economic outlook.

Many firms operating in the US and UK had stipulated that staff should spend three days a week in the office, but the slowdown in business in the past year has coincided with demands to up their office hours, according to legal recruiters.

US firms in particular are asking lawyers based in America and their UK branches to work in the office more often, recruiters added.

The move back to the office comes as some firms are slowing recruitment or even cutting roles after a hiring frenzy for newly qualified lawyers, who can earn as much as £179,000, according to the news website Legal Cheek.

US law firm Ropes & Gray has asked lawyers to be in the office four days a week, or 80 per cent of the time, from early November.

Another US firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges asked its lawyers to come back to the office four days a week from the beginning of September.

“We can confirm that our London attorneys have begun returning to the office four days per week as of September 4,” Weil said.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, based in New York with an office in London, asked staff to be in the office four days a week from September 4. Davis Polk, another New York based firm, also has a policy of four days a week in the office.

The slowdown in the sector has prompted the UK-based firm CMS to launch a redundancy consultation over cutting 19 roles in its UK corporate practice, while Linklaters, which has its headquarters in London, is looking at slimming down in China.

“In response to the prolonged downturn in the China market, we have decided to make a modest reduction to the number of lawyers in our Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong offices,” Linklaters said, adding that it is “fully committed to the China market”.

“The market has started to slow down and we have seen a shift from a candidate-led market back to a law firm-led one,” said Nathan Peart, who is managing director in the associate practice group at legal recruiter Major, Lindsey & Africa.

Stephen Rodney, co-founder of legal recruiter Fox Rodney, said: “Partner level hiring continues apace, although there is definitely more focus on the business case behind a hire than 12 months ago.

“At associate level, there has definitely been a slowdown in hiring. A lot of firms are focused on the implications of AI [artificial intelligence] both in terms of how they service clients and also how it may impact hiring in the future.”

Some recruiters say that the UK’s elite City law firms, which work on the biggest deals, expect fewer days in the office and this approach to hybrid working is helping differentiate them from hard-charging US law firms.

US firms often pay higher salaries but expect lawyers to rack up more billable hours and work in the office more often.

Herbert Smith Freehills, for example, has an expectation that its people will work in the office for an average of 60 per cent of their working time, or three days a week.

Freshfields also expects UK staff to spend three days a week in the office.

In 2020, Linklaters introduced a global agile working policy for staff that allows them to work remotely for up to 20-50 per cent of their time, without having to request permission.

Clifford Chance has a 50 per cent in-office-hybrid working policy.

Slaughter and May said that at least 60 per cent should be spent in the office, and 80 per cent in the case of trainees and new joiners.

Allen & Overy said that in London, its policy is an average of up to 40 per cent of time away from the office.