Some vital training can only be done in the office.
Respondents across the profession have been spilling the beans in RollOnFriday’s Best Law Firms to Work At 2026 survey. If you haven't already done so, do take just a couple of minutes to rate or slate your firm.
As firms continue to review and tinker with their WFH policies, some staff have said that the option for flexible working is a deal-breaker when it comes to staying at their firm.
One lawyer said they were worried their firm was trying "to destroy the few things that differentiate" it from "other mediocre City sweatshops" such as the "good WFH policy". And if the "relatively liberal approach to WFH were to go or be substantially reduced" they would "be gone by the end of the next month".
A business services staffer at another international firm also said they would consider leaving due to "recent moves in flexible working, upping from the previous 50% split", and opined that "the firm tends to have a one-size-fits-all approach without looking at everyone's circumstances".
Irwin Mitchell was praised by staff for its "flexible by choice" policy, with one staffer saying, "it really supports my family and home life. I'm treated like an adult and measured on my work output and deliverables not just my time in the office". However, while another agreed that IM "is very flexible", they believed "there is an undercurrent bubbling about the number of office days."
Mayer Brown was commended for its "overall good approach to remote working (3 days in the office), with flexibility as needed." Although a staffer claimed "the US are pushing for 4 days so suspect it won't be for much longer."
A White & Case respondent said there is a "constant move towards a pre-Covid 4-5 days in the office model" which "is out of kilter with peer firms, and will lead to the loss of good people" to firms "with more flexible hybrid models."
Work in a law firm? Rate how satisfied you are in RollOnFriday's Best Law Firms to Work At 2026 survey.
For some, a lenient WFH policy is the key reason for staying at their firm, compensating for other shortcomings. A Shakespeare Martineau solicitor said there would "likely be more of an exodus but flexible working continues to placate people", with the policy "really keeping people at the firm."
When other factors are positive, it's still in the mix. "I feel valued, both in terms of pay and culture," said a TLT senior solicitor, but "the flexible working arrangement makes me feel as though I'm on a really good thing, here, so I'd be quite mad to leave!" While a colleague said they "get so much more work done" rather "than spending 2.5 hours per day commuting."
Even Akin Gump lawyers who receive "market-topping" pay placed value on the firm's flexible working policy. One said: "I work hard, but compared to my peers at other 'elite US' firms I get it quite easy," noting that "WFH 2 days a week" is "extremely well respected."
In RollOnFriday's survey of in-house lawyers, the vast majority of clients either didn't mind, or expressed a preference for the lawyers they instruct to have the flexibility to work from home.
Take RollOnFriday's Best Law Firms to Work At 2026 survey, below. Or you can respond using this Google poll.
Comments
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Get back to the office you woke left wing guardian reading numpties.
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Yes in the middle of a financial collapse, with unemployment topping 5%, taxes about to rise, inflation running wild and house prices continuing rise, someone is going to resign their job in one of the few world class, growth sectors in this declining country over coming into the office three or four days a week? What do you think this is? 2006? You do that, you’re an idiot.
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These bone idle swindlers shouldn't be pushing to work from their ladder houses. They should be in the office five days a week, if we can't get them in six or seven. Maybe then the phones would get answered.
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Just wait until the tax changes come in, then watch the swinging redundancies (already happening below the radar). Then you’ll want to be in the office five days a week.
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Perhaps if you had a job mate you'd appreciatre working from home a little more.
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@ 09:14 appreciate
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Office mandates are uncompetitive employment terms. Meh. I'd just go somewhere else. Get a pay kick into the bargain.
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WFH seems to be a good barometer of where the power balance lies at law firms: with the firm or with the fee earners.
In times of high demand, it's all about the flexibility the firm can offer. But as soon as times get tighter it's back to the office, and if some people end up leaving because of this without the need for a redundancy consultation or payoff- well that's all the better.
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Law firms have always hated working from home ever since the government imposed lockdowns forced them into it.
Management like to see their slaves sweating in the office, knowing they have been through the humiliation ritual that is using filthy public transport.
It was always interesting how firms would advertise themselves as flexible or agile, but anyone they could replace easily, eg youngsters, would be forced to come into the office. Only senior or much needed people would negotiate working from home. One thing about law firms is if it is not in your contract at the start, you’re not getting it - they will never of their own free will grant any benefit to you. And they’ve been doing their best to get the oldies back into the office for years. But they are precisely the people who can find another job fairly easily.
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Quit then. T, w and t only dossers can do one.
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It's about the talent of the lawyer. Good lawyers set their own terms.
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I haven't come across or heard of any lawyer at a city firm that is required to go in more than 3 days a week. Even at that - it isn't strictly enforced.
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In the middle of “financial collapse”!!! Inflation “running wild!!!!!”
Good to know the English middle class haven’t stopped being hysterical declining mummy’s boys, then
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Bigmassif HEH @ the same Managing Partner blurrposting six times in a row at the top of the comments
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TLT’s WFH set up was the saving grace of my time there. But that was about it.
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Partner here (silver circle firm). I think threats to quit over being asked to come in 4 days a week are overblown and, frankly, overestimate associates’ leverage. With the advent of effective AI solutions, the power balance is going to swing violently back in favour of firms.
That being said, any firm that requires its associates to come in 4 days a week should, as a matter of policy, require the same from its partners. Completely unfair to tell people they need to be in the office in order to benefit from collaboration and learning, if the partners aren’t actually there as well.
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Old boys can't stand seeing the young guns get privileges they were never entitled too. Then again they could buy a flat in Chelsea for 89,000 in 1990 while today the average price is 1million.
Let us work from home you old codgers.
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Anon @05:48 the partners are the biggest threat to a successful return to office mandate - at my firm it's mainly the juniors who are ensuring that their faces are seen around the office and I don't know anyone who resents it, it's seen as part of the job, provided that flexibility is there when it's truly needed, e.g. for childcare and such. By contrast, there are partners who scarcely deign to put in an appearance more than once every couple of months. Saying that they are out having lunches and coffees only gets them so far, it's an open secret that they are just dossing at home. How can the firm justify demanding that associates attend the office 4 days a week when there are partners who still don't even manage it once?
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“ Partner here (silver circle firm)”
OY OY! Obsolescence personified is in
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Anon @14:10
Completely agree with you.