Big Firm Lawyer Works Part-Time—and Largely at Home

Victoria Wells has a job that many a lawyer might envy. As counsel to a major United Kingdom law firm, she works part-time from her home in Yorkshire, where she moved after marrying a farmer there, and only goes to work at Allen & Overy's office in London one day every two weeks.

Her job involves selling legal risk management technology to client financial institutions that deal with derivatives, reports the Lawyer.

Her unconventional job arrangement was approved by the firm, under a new flexible working policy, after Wells submitted an application seeking permission. She initially sought—and received—permission to work at A&O's office in London only two days a week, and then, two years later, after a maternity leave, asked the firm to approve her current part-time, largely at-home schedule.

"I probably was the first person to push the policy to its limits," she says.