Solicitors who've job-shared

[Cunningdisguise]

Have namechanged.

I'm currently on maternity leave, and due to return to work in a few months' time. I've already decided that I don't want to go back full time and am therefore planning to submit a request for flexible working.

I am a solicitor specialising in family law with a small high street firm. I did consider simply asking to reduce the number of days I work, but I don't think this will be practical. The team I'm in is very small so there would not be anyone to re-allocate any of my caseload to. I think it would be inevitable that I'd end up working way beyond my contractual hours just to keep my head above water. I would however be interested to hear from anyone who has reduced their hours in this way and found that it worked.

I think the only realistic way that I will be able to work part-time is on a job-share basis. I was wondering if anyone else working in a similar field has done this, and if so would you be able to answer the following questions:-

1. How do your clients feel about dealing with two fee earners in respect of their case?

2.How do you and your job share partner communicate? Do you have a 'hand-over' day (or half-day) when you are both in the office, or do you communicate remotely?

1. Did your firm raise any objections about paying two Practicing Certificate fees?

1. Do you each have your own case-load and only cover urgent matters for the other, or do you have the one case-load between you and deal with the work as it arises on the days that you are in the office?

1. If you share a case-load, do you find you have to do lots of non-chargeable work perusing documents etc. that your jobshare partner has already charged prep for?

1. If you each have your own case-load, do you find that you spend lots of time quickly getting up to speed on your partner's cases when urgent situations arise?

1. Do you have any other hints/tips as to how make a job-share work successfully or any pitfalls to avoid?

I am struggling to formulate my request at the moment (and fear that this may be because it is not in fact practical!!) so would love to hear from any MNetters who have made it work for them.

TIA

I've dealt twice with PP solicitors who have job shared as a client and I wasn't really impressed with it TBH. Now this was in the corporate sphere so may be totally different but what I found is that:

• when things were fast moving it was hard for both people to be up to speed in all details during their slots which was irritating when you had to explain things again or things got missed
• it felt like things took longer (not sure if true)
• there were concerns (not sure if a real issue as I didn't get the bill) that we would be billed more for all the handover work twice a week. If you don't bill the client then then your recovery rate per hour worked is going to be lower which may concern firms.
• when you're paying top premium rates (which we were) it was really irritating to get an out of office on Monday saying "where possible only contact me Wed PM to Friday" when bluntly you're used to expecting a full service.

Sorry this doesn't sound very encouraging and as I said my sphere is v different (and possibly much more demanding in expectations) but I think it would be v difficult to make it work as a fee earner in my world at least. People I know who have gone less than FT tend to move into project roles, knowledge management or sometimes in-house (not that PT is easy in any of those).

Thanks Axis - it's really helpful to hear a client's perspective. Tbh, it had been one of my main concerns that clients would feel that there was an element of repetition and/or delay however well I try to co-ordinate work with the other job-sharer.

You also make a good point about hand-over sessions - I can see that neither the client or the firm would want to pay for this (the firm 'paying' in lost fee-earning time). Not really sure what the answer would be here, think it would probably lead to even more work after hours which could be tricky with childcare arrangements etc.

Seems I've got lots to think about before I submit my request.....

I spoke to a family law partner from Charles Russell at a do once. She'd worked 4 days a week for years. Her view was that her high net worth clients going through stressful family law advice expected 24/7 service; they got her on her mobile and blackberry on her day off as they would at the weekend. She also had great secretarial support. She didn't think the clients minded. I don't know how well that translates to the high street though.

You sound like you're thinking about job sharing with someone of a similar level. What about mentoring someone more junior, who would cover urgent cases on your days off? That's cheaper for the clients, deals with supervising which you might do anyway, and is great exposure to more complex work for the junior. And I think it makes you look good to the clients too, if you have an assistant.