b'4 Local Government LawyerHomecomfortsAdam Carey looks at what the second Local Government Lawyer - LexisNexis Life after Lockdown survey results show and considers what they mean for the post-pandemic working practices of local government lawyers. Two years on from the imposition of remote working, local authorities face a choice. Currently, fee earners spend the majority of their time working at home, but with government guidance now encouraging employers to send their employees back to the office, councils are preparing to decide thethe governments campaign to shoo workersminor issue (Table 1).future of their remote working policy. out of their home offices gets into full swing,In addition, 40% of lawyers reported that To try and make sense of the feelingthe question is: do local government legalissues regarding the lack of appropriate amongst lawyers and management in regardsdepartments plan on following suit? technology have improved over the last 12 to remote working, Local Governmentmonths. Fifty-six per cent said it stayed the Lawyer conducted two surveys- one of legalTwo years later: what is going well? same, and just 3% said it got worse over the department management and another ofTwo positives stood out in the responses toyear (Table 2).all lawyers working in local authorities overthe summer 2020 survey when asked aboutMost lawyers are not just content with Christmas. Fifty heads of legal took part inremote workingthe lack of commutetechnology provision, complaints about office the management survey, while 395 lawyersand the improved work-life balance. In thisequipment that we heard in the previous completed the general survey. respect, lawyers experiences of workingsurvey have also fallen. The provision of This research acts as an update to theremotely have not changed. In addition, someergonomic office chairs, appropriate desks first Life after Lockdown survey conducted inproblems identified at the beginning of theand monitors seems to have assuaged the summer 2020, six months into the pandemic.pandemic have been remedied. cohort of summer 2020 respondents who Back then we heard complaints from lawyersThis time around, for instance, surveycomplained of an inadequate home office with technology gripes and poorly equippedresponses to questions around the provisionsetup.home offices as the realities of long termof technology and remote working toolsWe have been given new laptops and remote working began to emerge. Despiteare more positive. More than half (61%) ofequipment for home working and this has these issues, lawyers expressed overwhelminglawyers surveyed in summer 2020 said thatreally assisted with working from home. I was interest in continuing to work from homethe lack of appropriate technology was analso assisted with home office furniture and I post-pandemic. issue when working from home. Of those, 19%have a comfortable space to work now, noted At that point, working from homeclassed it as a major issue. By the end ofone respondent.was mandated by the government. But2021, the proportion of lawyers who classifiedFor lawyers who are happy with their now, in 2022, the outlook is different. Asthis as a major issue fell by four percentagecouncils provision of home office hardware, restrictions on everyday life fall away andpoints to 15%, and a further 43% said it was athe increased usage of heating and need for'