To work from home or not work from home? Recently international firm SNR Denton revealed that it is actively encouraging its employees to use their own IT equipment and work from home more often. The reasoning behind this policy was said to be that the individual often has superior equipment and that the firm’s new remote access system would make working from home more reliable. No doubt the policy will prove to be popular with some lawyers – however the idea may not necessarily be universally popular. Other lawyers from the more traditional school of lawyering don’t see working from home as a substitute for a friendly and collegiate office work environment. “There are a myriad of distractions at home and law firms need to consider that when they want to stay cost-efficient,” said Denis Brock, dispute resolutions partner for Mallesons in Hong Kong.

However, Mallesons does take the view that employees should be fully supported when they want to work from home. Paul Starr, construction and litigation team leader for Mallesons in Asia, said that he has part-time lawyers working a portion of each week from home due to either family responsibilities or other personal reasons. “One of my partners also utilised that scheme to raise his daughter for a couple of years,” he said. In addition, Gerard Neiditsch, executive director, business integration and technology at Mallesons, said: "Mallesons provides partners and most lawyers with smartphones - ie BlackBerries or iPhones. All Mallesons employees have remote access to IT systems which enable them to work securely from home or client premises when needed. These systems are compatible with PCs, Apple Macs and iPads.  In addition the firm has developed a versatile smartphone app where staff can access key resources from iPhones and iPads."A contrasting approach is that taken at Simmons & Simmons, which is set to make its  workplace more family friendly by installing a crèche in their premises.

One area which seems much more conducive to working from home is in-house. Jill Wong, special counsel at Mallesons, explained the issue in terms of cost. “When two people can share a desk the business will save costs, plus an in-house counsel doesn’t have the constraints of time sheets,” she said. Brock also agrees with this analysis: "When internal clients are themselves spread out over different countries, they do not mind where their in-house counsel is located, as long as the work gets done" he said. “However, I think a firm has to provide a stable and secure backbone. You can’t have work e-mails forwarded to Yahoo, for example; practitioners need to have a high level of confidence in the level of security. The firm’s software needs to be compatible with the hardware the individual is using,” he said.