Top UK firms embrace flexible working

More than three-quarters of the UK's top 50 law firms have introduced flexible working, The Lawyer can exclusively reveal.

Regional-based firm Mills & Reeves tops the table in terms of numbers of fee-earners taking up flexible working in the last year, according to a poll conducted by The Lawyer. Of the firm’s 407 fee-earners, 153 are no longer working traditional nine to five hours. This is the equivalent of 38 per cent of the workforce.

According to the research, the firms that have embraced flexible working tend to be nationals. Seven of the top 10 in terms of flexible-worker numbers are UK-centric firms.

In addition to Mills & Reeve, others include Beachcroft, Cobbetts and Eversheds, which came eighth, fourth and third respectively.

Magic circle firm Linklaters had the second-highest number of flexible workers at 150 globally. Proportionally, however, this equates to less than 1 per cent of its overall fee-earner headcount, which is in excess of 2,000 worldwide.

The other two global firms in the top fifth of the table are DLA Piper and Herbert Smith in seventh and ninth places respectively.

Top 10 law firms for number of fee-earners on flexible working

1. Mills & Reeve (153)
2. Linklaters (150)
3. Eversheds (126)
4. Cobbetts (97)
5. Olswang (77)
6. Addleshaw Goddard (74)
7. DLA Piper (71)
8. Beachcroft (63)
9. Herbert Smith (54)
10. Pinsent Masons (52)