The trial will extend to the multinational firm’s southern hemisphere offices – in Australia, Asia, and South Africa – for our upcoming summer.

In a statement provided to Lawyers Weekly, Pinsent Masons APAC-based head of HR Leah King said the firm’s “Summer Fridays” program is “designed to allow all of our people the opportunity to condense their working week so that, where possible, they are able to finish their week early during a set period within summer”.

“We continue to find ways to provide a truly flexible working experience for our people, and we see this initiative as an opportunity to explore ideas to support our team’s wellbeing by ensuring ways to allow our people more flexibility during a time when it is usually more practical to do so,” she said.

“We consider this focus on wellbeing as providing best outcomes for not just our team but also our clients and the business more generally.”

The trial follows Pinsent Masons’ recent and significant business growth in Australia in the past year, having taken teams from BigLaw rivals to expand into new practice areas Down Under.

Last week, the multinational firm took a TMT special counsel from MinterEllison, following the launch of its Australia-based TMT practice in March with a team from KPMG Law; it launched a work health and safety practice in Australia with a team from Sparke Helmore in February, a restructuring and insolvency practice with a team from Gilchrist Connell in December, as well as an employment and reward practice in August of last year.

It also follows Australia-based firms unveiling allowances for shorter working weeks, including NSW-based practice Coutts Lawyers and Conveyancers – which won the Diversity Law Firm of the Year category at the 2021 Women in Law Awards – introducing a four-day week option in mid-2022, and listed national plaintiff firm Shine Lawyers introducing a nine-day fortnight in August of that year.

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As reported by Lawyers Weekly’s sister brand, HR Leader, in August 2023, four-day weeks see the volume of personal days taken at businesses across the board drop by a staggering 44 per cent.

King said: “Running pilot programs of this kind is always difficult for law firms, which are often regarded as fairly traditional workplaces, particularly given we are operating in a busy environment; however, there have been some very positive research and experiences in this space over recent years, which we are excited to trial within a law firm environment.”

“We will ask for feedback from our people and clients at the conclusion of the pilot to test its effectiveness.”

This initiative, King continued, “is part of the firm’s longstanding support of flexible working and a continuing evolution of the benefits we offer our people”.

“In the past few months, we have introduced new benefits and enhanced existing ones available to our people in Australia, including bonus leave, salary sacrificing, physical wellbeing incentives, loyalty benefits and opportunities for firm-supported further education,” she said.