In-House Counsel

There's No Going Back: It's Time To Embrace A Hybrid Workplace Model

Legal departments should embrace a flexible hybrid work arrangement. 

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Young african american woman working from home and using a laptopIt has been a little over two years since the global pandemic took hold and changed our work and personal lives forever.  While we are not completely out of the proverbial woods yet, it does appear that we have made it through the worst of it. As I think about what our lives look like today, I can see very clearly that things have changed dramatically in how in-house lawyers now approach both their work life and their personal life.

During the days of the pandemic, I know I struggled mightily. I was consumed by feelings of loneliness and isolation. It was that loneliness and that isolation that drove me to connect with other lawyers on LinkedIn. Twenty of us even got together to write a book about our experiences. When our legal team reunited in-person on our college campus, it was truly a joyous occasion for me. The feelings of loneliness and isolation I had during the height of the pandemic melted away instantly.

As our legal team worked to find its footing in the post-pandemic world, however, I came to realize that the way we worked would never be same. While I enjoyed working in-person together again on our college campus, I could see that our entire legal team did not feel the same. They wanted to make our hybrid work arrangement permanent. As it turns out, our legal team is not alone. In a recent survey of 250 in-house legal professionals conducted by ContractWorks, 64% of respondents said that they preferred policies that would allow them to work from home. With this article, I have teamed up again with Jon Jelenko and Flo Nicolas to highlight why legal departments should embrace a flexible hybrid work arrangement.

Embracing Hybrid Work As A Retention Tool For Diverse Teams

In-house legal teams clearly have an opportunity to embrace their teams’ overwhelming preference for hybrid work as a way to retain the talent. This is especially true of the younger and more diverse talent that legal departments are desperately trying to attract and retain. In a recent article by McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm, authors Bonnie Dowling, Drew Goldstein, Michael Park, and Holly Price, noted that younger employees (18-34) were 59% more likely to consider leaving their jobs than older employees if hybrid work wasn’t an option. Far from being just a millennial trait, these authors noted that black employees were 14% more likely to consider leaving their jobs than their white counterparts, and LGBTQ+ employees were 24% more likely to consider leaving their jobs than their heterosexual counterparts if those jobs didn’t support a hybrid work option.

Legal teams would do well to take note that there are compounding effects beyond simply losing or failing to attract this diverse talent, as diversity and inclusion is also significant driver of retention and performance. The same McKinsey article reported that employees were 47% more likely to stay with their organization if it was inclusive and 90% more likely to go out of their way to help a colleague if they work in an inclusive organization.

When I talked to Jon and Flo about writing this article, Flo confirmed for me and for Jon that working in a predominantly white legal department can be highly stressful. Although working from home doesn’t entirely diminish that pressure completely, it may actually relieve the stress of feeling alone and not having to “code-switch” (changing one’s behavior to fit in by assimilating the acceptable culture) when working in-person.

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Now that companies are calling their teams back to work, surveys show that people of color have expressed a desire to continue with the hybrid blend of in-office and remote work that started during the pandemic. Many people of color who thrived and flourished working remotely may feel overwhelmed by the thought of working in office environments that lack serious representation of diverse cultures.

As we move forward, legal departments can no longer use traditional DEI initiatives alone. They must act to promote diversity and inclusion. As Sheela Subramanian and Ella F. Washington note in their February 25, 2022, article, “Why Flexible Work is Essential to Your DEI Strategy,” to “make good on recent public commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion, organizations must invest in initiatives that actively support their employees of color, and they can start by making pandemic-era flexibility a permanent offering for all.” While I may have found it lonely working remotely, my experience is not an experience shared by all.

In our next article, Jon, Flo, and I will delve into how legal team leaders can embrace technology to keep their teams connected and enable them to be efficient in any environment, but especially in a remote environment.

Lisa Lang is an in-house lawyer and thought leader who is passionate about all things in-house.  She has recently launched a website and blog Why This, Not That™ to serve as a resource for in-house lawyers.  You can e-mail her at lisa@lawyerlisalang.com, connect with her on LinkedIn, or follow her on Twitter.

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Jon Jelenko is a legal technology evangelist who has spent most of his career working with corporate legal departments. He is currently Director of Sales at Docket, and you can always reach him over email at jon@getdocket.com or connect with him on LinkedIn  at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonjelenko.

flo nicolas headshotFlo Nicolas — dubbed the #nonboringlawyer and Contract Tech Queen!! — is revolutionizing the old-school legal tech industry. She is the author of the LinkedIn article Legal Playbook – The Plan of Action You Must Have and ContractNerd.com guest writer for the article called How to create and use a signature authority chart. Flo is currently the Chief Growth and Community Officer of How to Contract Network and Host of a new steaming series called Contract Tech Showcase. She is also a Cable and Utilities Committee and Library Trustee Board Member. Flo is experienced with corporate technology operations and knowledgeable at leveraging data analytics and legal technology to optimize contract life-cycles, increase contract workflow efficiency and productivity.

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