As we know, the necessity to work remotely has been thrust upon us, courtesy of a pandemic. While the mode and location of work in the agricultural sector didn’t change, this wasn’t the case for the vast majority of the workforce.

But in times of adversity, new and different ways of working have developed. The tech that supports remote working has proved to be effective.

The legal sector was hit hard by the inability to come into the office. While lawyers I know have said they generally found working remotely to be successful, some younger lawyers really missed the structure and opportunity to learn from their more senior colleagues.

Recently, I spoke with Tania Leiman, who is the Dean of Law at Flinders University.

She’s wondering about further opportunities that might come from this working from home phenomenon.

In particular, in the areas of attracting lawyers working for city firms to the country and give country communities greater access to advice from the city-based firms?

The best of both worlds as it were.

Tania has a real interest in how we use technology to increase access to legal services.

This is evident in topics taught at Flinders, including Law in the Digital Age.

Opportunity exists for future-focused law firms to have staff working in the regions and to attract new employees who want to live in rural areas. With a bit of forethought, these staff can essentially be integrated into the city-based business.

For this to happen, partners of the city firms will need to think differently and be prepared to change their business model. The rewards will be there for the innovative firms that take the road less travelled.

Adequate supervision, and the integration of regionally-based staff into the city-based firm, are challenges but definitely are not insurmountable. Country-based employees would need to be very much part of the team and not a group forgotten about in a remote outpost. These obstacles can be overcome by good use of tech, effective policies and procedures and, most importantly, a willingness to make it work.

A change like this may even attract more country-based students into law, if they know they can ultimately work for a large firm with all the benefits that entails, including career progression and professional development, while still living within their community. The nature of work is changing and, in lots of ways, it isn’t going back to what it was.

Innovation is here to stay and the disrupters in the law will be able to get ahead of the game. As well as the employee and employer having a great outcome, the other big winners will be people in the country, due to having improved access to quality legal advice.