Lawyers distinctly half-hearted about benefits of part-time working

While top law firms are advising clients on the benefits of flexible working, very few of them are practising what they preach, according to new research

Legal Business magazine found that out of the 3,620 partners in the top 10 UK law firms, just 68 worked part-time.

Almost a third of the part-timers (19) work at Eversheds, followed by Linklaters (15) and DLA (11).

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The magazine highlights the practice of firms making part-timers take a ‘discount’ in their pay, which critics say is to discourage partners from going part-time.

Speaking in the Financial Times, Claire Smith, deputy editor of Legal Business, said: “Most of the major UK law firms make a lot of noise about the fact they now let partners work part-time, but until now, none has mentioned that fact that these partners have to make some pretty big sacrifices.”