Law firms say ‘yes’ to right to disconnect

Weekend emails, long hours and desk-lunches have long been commonplace for Australia’s lawyers. But many firms are adamant new right to disconnect laws will have no effect on operations.

Australian law firms have welcomed Labor’s right to disconnect laws.

It’s commonly known as one of the most taxing professions.

Lawyers have garnered a well-earned reputation for working incredibly long hours under tight deadlines, while answering to demanding clients. The weekend emails, the 11pm Uber home from the office and the desk-lunches have long been a staple in the day to day of one of the most arduous industries.

Despite this, many Australian firms are adamant the Albanese government’s new right to disconnect laws will have no effect on their regular operations, saying the long hours, the burnout and the overwhelming stress have already become things of the past.

“Generally, we believe that the legislation will have little impact on our firm. We have already been doing a lot of work to ensure that our people can work sustainably and without risks to their health, while managing our clients’ needs,” Herbert Smith Freehills executive partner Kristin Stammer told the Australian’s Legal Partnerships survey.

“We encourage our leaders to work with team members to ensure any out-of-hours contact is reasonable and that expectations are clearly communicated. We are committed to providing support including flexible working, global leadership training to build supportive team environments, and health and wellbeing programs to ensure our people feel supported and motivated to do their work effectively, and to a high standard.”

Hamilton Locke managing partner Nick Humphrey said the firm’s culture was “centred on the principle of ‘people-first’ ”.

“By that, we mean supporting people to be and do their best personally and professionally so they will deliver at their best for clients. That includes ensuring people are practising in a way that is truly sustainable – not working around the clock for extended periods and ultimately burning out,” he said.

“We keep a close eye on people’s work levels to ensure that they are taking necessary breaks, and that we are allocating resources appropriately. Fortunately, the way we’re structured means we can easily scale matters up or down. For this reason, we don’t anticipate, for our firm, that the right to disconnect laws will have a major impact. It’s already embedded in our culture that people’s wellbeing comes first.”

Labor’s reforms came into action in late August and mean workers are legally protected from responding to contact outside working hours unless it would be unreasonable not to do so.

Employment Minister Murray Watt said “clocking off used to mean something in this country”.

“Many workers feel pressured to remain connected to their emails and calls long after they have finished their workday. It should not be controversial that workers shouldn’t be required to do unpaid overtime,” he said.

“The right does not prohibit employers or employees contacting one another. It just means, in most circumstances, an employee does not need to respond until they are back at work.”

Moray & Agnew national managing partner Geoffrey Connellan said his staff already adopts measure to “eliminate and minimise the risks of long work hours and high job demands” and, as such, said the firm was “not concerned about the right to disconnect posing a challenge to the way we do business”.

“Appropriate planning and resourcing of teams will ensure we continue to deliver on high-effort projects while at the same time accommodating staff taking time to switch off out of hours,” he said.

Gadens chief executive Mark Pistilli said his firm had been “grappling” with work-life balance for many years and “are constantly working on getting the balance right”.

“Our workforce is diverse and consists of people who can and are willing to work outside regular working hours, and others who are less able or likely – we will continue to respect both approaches and don’t see this being greatly impacted by the new laws,” he said. “The flexibility we offer our people also adds an interesting dimension to this discussion – we have many people who opt to work outside ‘9 to 5’ to enable them to pursue other interests or support caring responsibilities.”

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