Lawyer and legal consultant Emma Haywood, who produces the ‘4 Day Lawyer’ as a monthly newsletter, wrote recently for the NZ Law Gazette about the move towards the 4 day work week for lawyers.

Last year, a bunch of companies in the UK tried it out and found that they didn’t lose any money using the 4 day workweek, and their employees were happier and more productive. But guess what industry wasn’t represented in that trial?

You got it – law firms.

Some people think that lawyers are just too set in their ways to try something new, but according to Emma Haywood it’s time to shake things up.

As someone who’s worked a four-day week as a solicitor, she points out that the 4 day workweek is totally doable.

Here are her four key principles for making it work:

1. Be productive: Cut out unnecessary meetings, streamline processes, and group similar tasks together.
2. Delegate: Give junior colleagues a chance to shine by letting them take the reins on your non-working day.
3. Personalize: Choose a non-working day that works for you and your clients.
4. Set boundaries with flexibility: Stick to your four-day week, but be willing to handle urgent issues on your non-working day.

By taking a mid-week break, she says she was able to be more strategic in her work and even got promoted twice in 10 months.

“And I’m not the only one – some law firms in the UK, Canada, Denmark, and Ireland have already implemented a four-day week, and big-name clients like Unilever and Sainsbury’s are running their own pilots.”

“Sure, it’s not a perfect solution, but why not give it a shot? If it doesn’t work out, you can always go back to five days a week. But if it does, you’ll be contributing to the future of work and reaping the benefits of happier, more productive employees.”