Motus Recruitment Insights

For those that remember a certain 1980’s film starring Michael J Fox, there is one particular trend we are seeing in the legal profession at the moment (and, as recent newspaper reports would suggest, perhaps the wider UK workforce as a whole)… we seem to be moving forward to the past!

Since the pandemic, and perhaps well before that, there has been a shift towards ‘working from home’ and the legal profession has fully embraced this momentum, in part as a matter of need through Covid times and also as firms battle with one another to attract the signature of the best talent available.

3 and 2, maybe 2 and 3, fully flexible – different patterns that have all been seen a lot over the last two to three years, and candidates have been led to expect choice in their working pattern, but... are things changing?

We are starting to see a move back towards clients wanting to encourage (or perhaps mandate) time in the office. It is tricky to start changing what has already been promised with existing staff (although we hear anecdotally it is happening), but the obvious place to look to see this trend in action is the new offers that are coming through.

Increasingly, hiring firms are explaining a keenness to include a majority of days in the office within new offers, and emphasising the benefits for the candidate and the firm. It will be interesting to see in the months to come whether firms will go further and base offers around an expectation of 5 days in the office again, and whether such offers will be accepted or declined in favour of other (flexible) options.

In a candidate-short market, one would expect candidates' desired work patterns and locations would still be dictating what law firms offer, but it feels like we are seeing a shift in the debate.

Here at Motus, we have recently seen a couple of offers pushing for a heavy bias towards time in the office, and as we know, law firms are spending vast amounts of money to make their office environments as attractive a choice for a day’s work as possible - think cosy communal spaces, greenery, barista-quality coffee etc.

It remains to be seen to what extent in this aspect at least, the legal industry is fully heading forward to the past, but it is something we will keep a close eye on.

We will report back again soon!