One of the leaders of the movement for a standard four-day week has said law firms may take longer than businesses in other sectors to embrace the idea.

Four-day Week Global published results this week of a six-month study into 61 UK companies that signed up to a model where staff worked 80% of their hours but received 100% of their salary.

The initial findings seem to suggest that workers benefited from the change, absenteeism was down and productivity did not drop in most cases. The campaign group says the majority of participants in the study will continue with a four-day week.

But the pilot scheme found no law firms willing to take part. While a handful of firms in the UK already operate a four-day week – and similar trials in other parts of the world did attract legal practices – campaigners admit it will be a slower process to persuade lawyers to switch.

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, programs director of Four Day Week Global, said: ‘My own experience from working with companies is that cultural norms in the legal profession, and the habits created by billable hours, make it especially challenging to move to a four-day week – but there is interest in it.

‘In a hospital chain I’m working with, the nurse managers have embraced a four-day week without reservation, while the chain’s legal team rejects it out of hand,' Pang said. ‘It’s not that nurses are less professional or dedicated, or that lawyers care more about patients; but nurses are used to working in ways that support teach other, and thinking about the design of schedules, while the culture of legal profession makes it hard for lawyers to imagine themselves working four-day weeks.’

Pang said law firms in Canada, Denmark and Northern Ireland had shortened their working weeks along the model the group advocates, and managing partners from other firms have asked how to prevent burnout of their lawyers.

‘I think there’s a widespread recognition that current legal practice burns people out unnecessarily, shortens the careers of people the profession would benefit from having, and makes for worse law, and needs to change. Figuring out how to redesign legal practice, and managing the transition to more sustainable careers and practice, is the challenge.’

The pilot scheme in the UK, which ran from June to December 2022, found that revenue rose by 1.4% on average across all companies and staff attrition fell by 57%. Meanwhile, 90% of employees said they definitely wanted to continue with a four-day week and 55% reported an increase in their ability at work. A majority reported having more time to combine paid work with care responsibility and 62% said it was easier to combine work with social life.

But sceptics say the pilot is not long enough to judge whether a tangible change has happened, as the results cannot be judged over a whole year.

 

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