Hybrid Working Here To Stay | LIJ

For many employees one of the positive effects of the pandemic was normalising the practice of working from home. But some law firms are now insisting their employees come back into the office full-time.

However one law firm owner bucking that trend is Brave Legal principal lawyer Bree Knoester, who says her firm is “loudly committed to a hybrid working environment”.

Ms Knoester, who set up her firm during COVID-19, says the pandemic showed it was possible to work productively and efficiently remotely.

“While there’s definitely a place for collaborating in the office, and I certainly wouldn’t want us to go back to 2020 and 2021 where we were at home full time, hybrid working is something we have decided to commit to long term.”

As a senior female practitioner Ms Knoester says she wants to create an environment where junior practitioners can be present in their family life in ways that weren’t available to her in a conventional working environment. “We are hybrid because we consider family first – and family can be a pet, a grandparent, an older parent, a child, a partner, or your mental or physical wellbeing.”

Working from home also provides introverts or extremely busy practitioners with valuable time to be productive away from distractions, she says. “We have an open plan environment, and even for me as an extroverted personality I need that day at home to really focus on a detailed task.”

It is still possible to collaborate and create learning opportunities for junior lawyers in the office with judicious scheduling, Ms Knoester says. “Our people have choice around how they work. And that comes back to autonomy which is one of the key factors for job satisfaction.”

To read the full article on the Law Institute of Victoria website, visit the link below.