By Louis Goss
Magic Circle law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has upped the minimum number of days it expects its lawyers to come to the office from two-and-a-half to three days a week.
Lawyers working at the Magic Circle firm’s London and Manchester businesses will now be expected to work from the office for at least three days each week.
Freshfields’ partners, associates, and trainees had previously been expected to spend half of their time working from the office, after the firm first set out its official hybrid working policy last year.
The firm’s decision is aimed at creating more of a “buzz” in the office, as many of the firm’s lawyers “continue to mainly work from home,” company sources told legal news website RollonFriday.
Freshfield’s bid to bring its lawyers back into the office comes as law firms have struggled to strike the right balance in setting out their hybrid working policies, since the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions.
In April, Stephenson Harwood told its staff to come in for at least three days each week, or instead take a 20 per cent pay cut to work from home as often as they like.
Freshfields call comes after the law firm left its Fleet Street premises to move into new offices at 100 Bishopsgate last year.
Freshfields decision to exit its Fleet Street offices, for smaller premises in the 40-story tall Bishopsgate tower, followed the firm’s decision to open its low-cost Manchester hub in 2015.
The new policy comes as a downturn in the global economy and a slowing of global dealmaking threatens the legal sector’s revenues.
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