The image of a successful lawyer has long been a familiar one. Always available. First in and last out. Building a career through hard work, dedication and long hours in the office. 

For generations of lawyers, that model represented professionalism, commitment and ambition. Many built rewarding careers that way, often through considerable personal sacrifice. But as the profession evolves, an increasing number of practitioners are asking a different question. It isn’t whether lawyers are willing to work hard. It’s whether there might be more than one way to build a fulfilling legal career. 

Across New Zealand, lawyers are finding ways to balance demanding work with family responsibilities, health needs, community commitments and careers that are sustainable over the long term. Flexible working isn’t new, but it’s becoming an increasingly important part of the conversation about how the profession can attract and retain talented people. 

For civil litigation lawyer Alice Robertson, flexibility began when she started working for Heaney & Partners while living first on Waiheke Island and later in Dunedin, she was able to work remotely years before hybrid arrangements became widespread. 

“It started with one day working from home each week,” she says. “Then when we were looking at moving to Dunedin, my firm was willing to try something different and see what happened.” 

That willingness to experiment proved critical. 

“It was really about being open to doing things differently with good faith and trust on both sides,” Alice says. 

Partner at Heaney & Partners Frana Divich says that philosophy stretches back decades. 

“I’ve been with the firm since 2005 and they’ve always been flexible,” she says. “There’s been flexibility from the beginning. We’ve invested a lot of time developing people, and you want to keep them. It’s about recognising that you need to accommodate people in order to retain talent.” 

Importantly, flexibility isn’t just about parents of young children. For lawyer Sarah McClean at Anderson Lloyd, flexibility has taken different forms at different stages of life. “I’ve been aware that my needs, and my family’s, keep changing, so I might need to change my hours,” she says. “That’s something that’s been really important to me. The reality is that both those things need to be functioning well. Work and life both need to flex around each other for whatever’s the competing need.” 

Sarah is quick to challenge assumptions about who flexible working is for. “It’s not just women,” she says. “There are men who want to spend more time with their children. There are people caring for parents. People have different things happening in their lives.” 

Careers span decades, and flexible working recognises that people’s circumstances evolve over time. 

One of the strongest arguments for flexible working is retention. Law firms invest significant time and expertise in developing lawyers, yet many experienced practitioners leave private practice seeking arrangements that better accommodate other responsibilities or priorities. 

For Alice, the ability to continue practising while living in Dunedin and raising her family has been a significant factor in her decision to stay. “I am very grateful to Heaney’s – this flexibility has allowed me to prioritise and participate in the other things that matter in my life as well,” she says. 

Sarah agrees. “I think the reality is to keep good people, you have to be able to offer that flexibility,” she says. 

Frana shares that perspective. “We’ve always made arrangements for people that you want to be able to retain,” she says. “There’s a really good person that we’ve retained because we were flexible and let her work for us from Dunedin.” 

Flexible working won’t solve every retention challenge facing the profession. But it may help ensure talented practitioners don’t feel they have to choose between the law and the rest of their lives. 

Successful arrangements rely on planning, communication and trust. “There’s got to be flex and trust on both sides,” Sarah says. She also believes clients are often more understanding than lawyers expect. 

“I think we’re often really afraid that some clients won’t care that you’ve got a life outside of work. But actually, most of them, if they’re a good client, understand that.” 

The legal profession has never stood still. It has adapted to new technologies, changing client expectations and evolving social norms. Flexible working may be another chapter in that story. 

There is growing recognition that flexibility is no longer a niche issue. It’s a recruitment issue. A retention issue. A wellbeing issue. And increasingly, a business issue. 

Frana encourages firms considering flexibility, to experiment rather than adopt wholesale change. “Maybe they start small,” she suggests. “Allow everyone to pick a day that they work from home and then see how it goes.” 

Perhaps most importantly, flexible working challenges the assumption that there’s only one way to build a successful legal career. 

For Alice, flexibility has enabled her to balance a career she loves with a life that works for her. For Sarah, it has meant adapting to life’s changing seasons. For Frana, it has become a practical strategy for retaining talented people. 

The future of legal practice may not depend on one perfect model of work, but on a profession confident enough to recognise many ways of succeeding while maintaining excellence, commitment and ambition. 

The opportunity is bigger than helping lawyers balance work and life. It is to build a profession where talented people choose to enter, stay and thrive, through different seasons of life and different ways of contributing. That begins with a simple truth: there is more than one way to build a meaningful career in the law. 

Five tips for making flexible working work 

• Be clear about expectations 
• Keep communication open 
• Recognise that needs change over time 
• Focus on outcomes rather than presenteeism 
• Approach flexibility as a partnership built on trust