Having children is not a pre-requisite for working flexibly. There are many child free solicitors who crave a more flexible working life. Some practices look at those solicitors askance, wondering why on earth they need to work flexibly when they don’t have children to worry about.
Imagine what it must be like to want to work flexibly so you can enjoy life now that you are financially stable; so you can go travelling or apply more effort to your hobbies. It would be wonderful to see those New Year Resolutions come to fruition, but there are not enough hours in the day.
Free spirited solicitors are hampered by a lack of annual leave and the rigidity of traditional private practice. They want to be able to drop everything at short notice and not worry about the office politics. How frustrating it must be for the amateur sailor not to be able to go sailing when the wind is just right. Or you’re just getting good at golf but finding half a day when it’s not raining doesn’t fit with the daily billable hours target. What about if like me, you’ve got a dog & you yearn to go for a long walk when it isn’t dark.
There are so many solicitors whose golf clubs are gathering dust. There are many more that would like to take off for 3 weeks to travel somewhere far flung, but their practice only allows 2 weeks’ leave at a time. What a waste.
Some of those solicitors will never get to the bottom of their bucket list. They will never be able to see how good they could get at golf/sailing/macramé/(insert chosen hobby here!), because they never got the time to do so. Maybe that feeling of resentment will spill over into their working lives. Maybe they will leave the profession altogether.
At Cognitive Law we don’t give two hoots how our solicitors want to spend their free time. We don’t see why solicitors should compromise their dreams, or their professional status. Although we’re passionate about the law, we know that solicitors have other ambitions they would like to fulfil outside of the office.
We know that in order to travel or get good at a sport you need time. You need the flexibility to be able to make quick decisions about when, where and how you are going to practice. You need to be able to check the calendar and make it work for you. You need to be your own boss.
At Cognitive Law we can give you all of that, and more. One of our consultant solicitors is a sailing fanatic. She couldn’t have bought her boat, renovated it and spent many happy hours at sea if she worked in a traditional practice. Another of our consultant solicitors is a keen fell walker. She was severely restricted in when she could indulge her passion before she started working with Cognitive Law.
It seems a real shame to be financially and professionally stable, yet unable to enjoy both at the same time. At Cognitive Law you can realise both dreams. If you would like to find out more about how you can keep those New Year Resolutions alive for longer than the month of January, please do get in touch with us for a chat. Contact us on 0333 400 4499 or visit our Join Us page to find out more about our flexible working consultancy opportunities.
lucy.tarrant@cognitivelaw.co.uk