Flexible working remains an important part of the conversation around attraction and retention in the legal sector.

In our recent blog, Is Offering Flexibility Your Biggest Flex Heading Into 2027?, we looked at the role flexibility can play when firms are competing for talent. Our latest Salary Survey & Market Report also shows that flexibility continues to form part of the wider package legal professionals are considering alongside salary, progression, benefits and quality of work.

But a recent poll we ran on LinkedIn raised a slightly different question.

We asked whether greater flexibility can negatively affect how somebody is perceived at work. Of the 49 people who responded, 44% said that unfortunately it can, while 36% felt performance should be the key consideration. A further 14% said it depends on the role or firm, and 4% had experienced this themselves.

The numbers are based on a relatively small poll, so they are not intended to represent the whole legal profession. What was particularly interesting, however, was the discussion they generated.

Flexibility means different things to different people

One of the clearest themes from the responses was that flexibility is not simply about working from home.

For one person, it had meant asking to change a shift by an hour because public transport did not run late enough. Others spoke about part-time working after maternity leave, caring responsibilities, disability and the ability to work remotely because of a partner’s military posting.

For firms, that is a useful reminder that a conversation about flexibility can cover a wide range of working arrangements. Part-time hours, adjusted start and finish times, compressed hours, hybrid working and remote working can all form part of it.

There will, of course, be roles where particular hours or levels of office presence are genuinely important. The key is clarity around what the role requires and where there may be room to adapt.

Performance versus presence

Another recurring theme was the relationship between visibility and performance.

Some respondents felt that working fewer days or spending less time in the office could affect how an employee’s commitment was perceived, even where their results remained strong.

That does not mean office attendance is irrelevant. Legal work can depend heavily on collaboration, supervision, client contact and learning from colleagues. But it does raise a useful question for firms with flexible arrangements in place: how is performance actually being assessed?

If expectations are clear and somebody is delivering against them, firms may want to consider whether physical presence is carrying more weight than intended.

This becomes particularly important when decisions are being made around progression, development opportunities and the allocation of higher-profile work.

Flexibility should not automatically mean lower ambition

A number of the comments also focused on the assumption that somebody asking for greater flexibility may be less ambitious or less interested in progression.

That is clearly not always the case.

People’s circumstances change throughout a career. Parenthood, caring responsibilities, health, location and personal commitments can all influence how somebody needs to work without changing what they want to achieve professionally.

For employers, there is a valuable distinction to make between how somebody works and what they are capable of contributing.

As recruiters, we speak to candidates about far more than salary expectations alone. Progression, management, flexibility, commute, culture and the quality of the work all form part of decisions about whether somebody stays with a firm or considers moving.

Flexibility can (and does) open up the talent pool

Not all of the feedback focused on potential drawbacks.

One employer told us that remote working had been a “game changer” for their business because it enabled them to employ military spouses who may be based in different parts of the UK or overseas.

That is perhaps one of the most useful points for firms to consider from a recruitment perspective.

The more tightly a role is defined by location or traditional working patterns, the smaller the potential candidate pool can become. Where a firm can offer genuine flexibility, it may create access to experienced people who would otherwise have ruled the opportunity out before the recruitment process had even started.

This will not work for every role or every firm, granted, but it is worth considering whether working arrangements are being shaped by the genuine needs of the position or simply by the way the role has always been done.

A useful sense check for firms

Flexible working does not need to mean lowering expectations, and nor does every request have to be workable.

The strongest arrangements are likely to be those where both sides understand what is expected, where performance remains central and where the flexibility being discussed during recruitment reflects the reality once somebody joins.

For firms heading into 2027, it may therefore be worth looking beyond the wording of a flexible-working policy and considering how it operates in practice.

• Are people working different patterns still able to access development opportunities?
• Are managers clear about how performance is measured?
• Is the flexibility described to candidates genuinely available within the team they are joining?
• And could a little more flexibility widen the pool of people your firm is able to recruit?

Those are useful questions whether your firm is hiring now or simply starting to think about its plans for the year ahead.

At Clayton Legal, we work with law firms and legal professionals across the UK, giving us insight into both the priorities shaping candidate decisions and the practical challenges firms face when recruiting. Our role is not to prescribe one way of working, but to help firms understand the market and build a proposition that works for their business and the people they want to attract.

If you would like to discuss what candidates in your region or practice area are currently looking for, get in touch for a confidential, no-pressure chat.