By Louis Goss
Travers Smith has become the latest City law firm to call lawyers back into the office after telling staff to spend 60 per cent of their time at work.
The law firm’s new “agile working” policy calls on Travers Smith’s lawyers to come into the office for six days across every two working weeks.
Lawyers at Travers Smith had previously been required to come in 50 per cent of the time, for five out of days every two weeks.
In a bid to ensure juniors get face-to-face training, the Silver Circle firm is also calling on its paralegals, trainees, and new joiners to come in four days a week, the law firm told City A.M.
A Travers Smith spokesperson said juniors’ “development needs are best met when they are in the office and learning from others – either actively or by osmosis”.
The calls follow Travers Smith’s summer review of its hybrid working policy, after it put in place a formal work-from-home policy in the wake of Covid-19.
Travers Smith new mandate comes after Magic Circle law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer upped its requirements in calling for lawyers to spend three days a week in the office, having previously let its staff work half of their time from home.
The calls come after Keystone Law founder James Knight told City A.M. this summer that a downturn in the UK economy could put greater pressure on lawyers to come back to the office.
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