My wife and I were apprehensive about how we would cope when she returned to work following the birth of our third child. We are both solicitors, and well aware that at times this can be a highly demanding job. We have three kids aged five and under, and a dog who has slowly slipped down the familial pecking order, so our household is a constant cacophony of noise and mayhem at the best of times, and we were concerned about how we would manage. It was in that context that I asked Travers to switch to fixed hours (9am to 6pm) on a trial basis, to ease that transition.
I think there has been a shift in how city firms value and accommodate paternal responsibilities since I qualified ten years ago; the longer periods of paternity leave that are now on offer, including at Travers Smith, are evidence that change has happened. But, nevertheless, I think a lot of firms would have baulked at my suggestion or been close-minded as to its feasibility. Travers could not have been more accommodating. Not only did the partners accede to my request, but they strove to make it work in practice, making sure my cases were properly resourced, and never exerting pressure on me to break or bend my arrangement. I had to accept a modest salary sacrifice, but it was calculated fairly and transparently. The arrangement helped my wife and I navigate the transition back to us both working, and let us test, on our own terms and in our own time, how our childcare arrangements would work if I were to revert to full-time hours.
When I decided, after several months, that I wanted to go back to working full-time, and that it would be practicable, the firm once again accommodated my request, and the partners were understanding of my rationale. I think Travers is exemplary in supporting and investing in its people, treating them with kindness as valued individuals, who can make a long-term contribution to the success of the firm.
I was initially apprehensive about changing my working arrangement to contracted hours (9:30 – 17:30, Monday to Friday). I wasn’t aware of anyone at the firm working on an alternative basis that wasn’t related to childcare/family, it felt like the wrong point in my career to decrease my hours, and I wasn’t sure it would work in practice. It’s been over a year now and I have been pleasantly surprised!
My reasons for requesting an alternative working arrangement included wanting to: (i) finish a novel; (ii) write more poetry; (iii) devote more time to piano exam prep; and (iv) start teaching yoga (after having completed around 5 yoga teacher training courses).
I’ve learnt a lot in the last year – most of which has nothing to do with the above list or what I’d anticipated from alternative working. The novel is still a work in progress, but I’ve had encouraging feedback from agents and an editor and hope to finalise it this year. One aspect of litigation that I love most is understanding a particular client’s story, and how that narrative can be utilised to make their case most compelling, and ultimately, construct the best arguments. There are obvious differences between writing a novel and practising law, but I’ve found many of the skills transferrable – particularly problem solving, thinking laterally and dynamically, and always keeping an open mind. Similarly, whilst I’d be reluctant to bust out any yoga asanas in the office, I rely on breathwork and meditation techniques daily, and this has been a gamechanger in terms of managing the more stressful aspects of the job.
It can be difficult to log off at 17:30, particularly in busier periods when your team members are still working hard, and there have been days when I’ve worried that I might be letting people down or disappointing someone. That being said, everyone I have worked with has been supportive, encouraging and done all that they can to ensure that the arrangement works. I’m not sure when I’ll return to my regular working pattern – but when that day comes, I hope I can carry forward the many lessons learnt from alternative working. I’m very grateful to Travers Smith, and its strong and collaborative culture, which has made this opportunity possible.
When I first started my agile working arrangement in 2022, I was a junior lawyer in the team. I was a new mum, my husband was (and remains) a junior doctor training to be a maxillofacial surgeon, we were expecting our second child, and we had our family dog in tow ensuring our home was, and continues to be, a chaotic whirlwind. At the time, given my husband’s NHS rota and our childcare arrangements, we decided that for the time being, I would work a four-day week with fixed working hours.
Not much has changed on the reasoning as we continue to try to navigate our careers while raising a young family. Having trained at Travers, I believed that support for my agile working choice would be unwavering, but this didn’t change the fact that I was extremely anxious that I would be doing a disservice to my career and that my team would be negatively impacted. As I’d imagined, the partners, seniors and juniors in all of the teams I have worked with have proactively sought to make my new hours work. Whether it was resourcing the case, discussions regarding managing meetings (and being briefed on meetings) scheduled outside of my arrangement, or reminding me that the quality and diversity of the work I am given, and carry out, are more important factors than the number of hours I contribute.
There is no doubt that, for me, agile working has not been seamless. However, this is entirely due to the levels of guilt I have felt (and will always feel to some degree) when I must log off to pick up my girls, but the team is still beavering away, or when I can’t attend an important call on my non-working day. There has been a different kind of learning curve in which I’ve grappled with the importance of workload priorities, how to be most efficient, candid communication with team members regarding specific deadlines and, still the most difficult, saying “no” to additional work or responsibilities if this would negatively impact my output. It has been a journey for me to understand that agile working is a choice that works for me, given my current family circumstances, but that everything is a phase. I am privileged that Travers enables me the opportunity to try to balance my career pathway with being a new parent.
For the last four years – since I returned to work after the birth of my first child – I have worked a four-day week, with Friday as my non-working day. At the time I went off on maternity leave as a senior associate I certainly felt a little daunted and apprehensive about the prospect of combining a demanding career with being a new mum. I thought a four-day week would help me have the best of both worlds. Has that turned out to be true? The honest response is that some weeks the answer is yes and some weeks the answer is no. Working part time in a job like this is challenging and there is no getting away from that. Travers Smith lawyers are hardworking and conscientious individuals with demanding jobs. That can at times feel very hard to square with a part-time working arrangement and poses some tricky questions: how do you measure 80% of a total which itself is uncertain and fluctuates depending on the demands of your caseload at any given time?
At Travers Smith we pride ourselves on delivering excellent client service and as a firm and as a department we need to have the right systems and structures in place to ensure that in delivering that client service individual working arrangements are respected and protected. It requires commitment and buy-in from the firm and from the individuals on these arrangements. Inevitably we don’t get it absolutely right all the time and we are always learning, but what I will say is this. As a former associate in this team I am hugely grateful for the tireless work done over many years to create an environment in which I did not think twice about asking for this arrangement: regardless of whether it was granted or not I can honestly say I had no concerns that asking the question would affect my career prospects. Now as a partner in this team – made up on a four-day week – I feel proud that we invest in our people and take seriously our commitment to support them in having long careers where they can fulfil their potential.
