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Part Time and flexible Legal Jobs

15.05.07 Flexible working hours and the legal profession

I often have conversations with senior partners of law firms who ask me for lawyers willing to work hard, be committed to their firm, and show entrepreneurial flair and determination, but no-one lightweight or wanting to work part time. Usually the requirement is for someone who wants to work full time and in the office from 9-5pm. This, in the partner's eyes, is someone who is committed and hard working.

I have to say that I often find that if I work flexible hours, which I often do, my work benefits as a result. If I want to go and have a game of golf one afternoon, but then work the evening to make up for it, this means I get to relax during the day, and get some exercise, and then in the evening condense 3-4 hours of office time into 2 1/2, and not have to deal with the telephone calls or other distractions.

I would estimate that for a lot of part time workers, they do the same, if not more hours than a full time worker, as when they are in the office, they usually have a lot more work to do. Full timers can afford to spend a morning Ocado shopping, or arranging car insurance quotes, but part timers have to be focussed for the whole time they are in the office in order to complete their work in a set time for that day.

So when a partner thinks that someone is hard working because they are in the office from 9-5, he or she is probably wrong. Someone who is hard working is someone generating fees, and this can be done in shorter time frames or on a different time scale than just the normal office hours. Offices on the continent open very early in the morning and close early in the afternoon to enable their workers to enjoy other things in life, such as exercise etc.. Not quite there yet in the UK..

Jonathan Fagan, MD of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment (http://www.ten-percent.co.uk) - no.1 online UK legal recruitment agency - save time, skip the legal job boards and let us do the work - register online for our recruitment services 
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Anonymous said…
Hi. I am a senior arts entrepreneurship major and older, returning student in the U.S. I want to be a working artist and an attorney and work flexible hours. Some people are telling me the law profession does not work that way - that you have to be fixed in anoffice building or you can't be an attorney. Is this true?
23 November 2008 at 04:18
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