This guide is written for solicitors, trainees and law students in England and Wales.
Every employee has a statutory right to request flexible working from day one, and a law firm can still refuse it. What has changed is the process around the refusal. From 2027 a firm will only be able to say no where it is reasonable to do so, and will have to explain why in writing.
What can a solicitor actually ask for?
A statutory flexible working request is not limited to working from home, which is where most conversations inside firms stop. It reaches any change to hours, times or place of work. It covers part-time and compressed hours, staggered start times, term-time working and job shares. A fixed number of remote days, or a change to which office you are based at, sits on the same statutory route.
The right is to request, not to receive. That distinction does a lot of work, and it is the reason a firm can operate a four-day attendance policy and still be complying with the law. What the statute controls is how the firm handles the request, not what answer it reaches.
Who this guide is for
Solicitors and other legal staff employed by a firm or an in-house team who want to change their working pattern. Also supervisors and practice managers on the receiving end of those requests. It is written around the position in England and Wales as at August 2026.
It is not written for partners. An equity partner is not an employee, so the statutory route does not apply, and the arrangement is a matter for the partnership agreement.
What the law gives you today
Since 6 April 2024 the right to request has applied from the first day of employment. There is no qualifying period. An employee may make two statutory requests in any twelve-month period.
The request must be in writing and must state that it is a statutory request for flexible working. It must set out the change sought and when it should take effect. Since April 2024 there is no longer any requirement to explain what effect the change would have on the employer or how that effect might be dealt with. That obligation moved off the employee.
The firm must deal with the request within two months, including any appeal, unless a longer period is agreed. It must consult the employee before refusing. It may only refuse on one or more of eight business grounds set out in the Employment Rights Act 1996:
- the burden of additional costs
- a detrimental effect on the ability to meet customer demand
- an inability to reorganise work among existing staff
- an inability to recruit additional staff
- a detrimental impact on quality
- a detrimental impact on performance
- insufficiency of work during the periods proposed
- planned structural changes
That test is currently subjective. If the firm considers a ground applies, and that view rests on correct facts, it is a sound basis for refusal even if another employer would have decided differently.
The Acas Code of Practice on requests for flexible working came into force on 6 April 2024, replacing the 2014 Code. Failure to follow it does not by itself create liability, but tribunals must take it into account. The Code recommends a meeting, a written outcome and an appeal stage. It also recommends allowing the employee to be accompanied by a colleague or trade union official. None of those are statutory requirements.
What changes in 2027?
The Employment Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025 and reshapes the refusal side of the process. The government consulted on the detail between 5 February and 30 April 2026, and the changes are expected in 2027.
| Element | Before 6 April 2024 | From 6 April 2024 | From 2027 under the ERA 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who can request | 26 weeks’ service | Day one right | Day one right |
| Requests per year | One | Two | Two |
| Employee must explain impact | Yes | No | No |
| Consultation before refusal | Not required | Required, process not specified | Required, process specified in regulations |
| Grounds for refusal | Eight statutory grounds | Eight statutory grounds | Same eight grounds |
| Test applied | Employer’s genuine belief | Employer’s genuine belief | Must also be reasonable to refuse |
| Written explanation of refusal | Ground only | Ground only | Ground and why refusal is reasonable |
| Decision period | Three months | Two months | Two months |
| Tribunal remedy | Up to eight weeks’ pay | Up to eight weeks’ pay | Up to eight weeks’ pay |
The eight grounds survive intact and so does the remedy. The change is the reasonableness test sitting on top of them. It also requires the firm to write down why the refusal is reasonable, rather than simply which box it falls in. Our Employment Rights Act timeline tracks where this sits against the rest of the Act.
Where does the market actually sit?
Stated policy across City and national firms currently runs anywhere from three days in the office to five. Several firms sit at four. A smaller number have returned to full-time attendance. Some monitor building access data, and stated minimums are frequently exceeded during active matters, which means the policy and the practice can be a long way apart.
Around 28% of UK workers were working on a hybrid basis in 2025 according to Office for National Statistics figures, a proportion that has been broadly stable. Law is not an outlier in either direction. What distinguishes it is the billing model, which makes presence during a deal or a trial preparation period non-negotiable regardless of what the policy says.
None of that is a legal constraint. A firm may require attendance. The statutory route governs how it responds when someone asks it not to.
How to make a request that gets agreed
- Decide whether you want the statutory route. An informal agreement with a supervising partner is quicker and easier to unwind. A statutory request creates a record, a deadline and a remedy. Choose deliberately rather than by default.
- Put it in writing and label it. State that it is a statutory request for flexible working, set out the change and the date you want it to start. An unlabelled email does not start the clock.
- Address the eight grounds before they are raised. You are no longer required to. But the grounds are the only lawful basis for refusal, so a request that engages with cover, client contact and supervision is harder to refuse on any of them.
- Offer a trial period. The Acas guidance treats trials as a way through where a firm is uncertain, and a fixed review date is easier to agree than a permanent change.
- Ask for the meeting. Consultation before refusal is a legal requirement. Requesting a meeting and a written outcome puts the process on the record.
- Appeal if refused. There is no statutory appeal, but the Code recommends one, and the two-month period covers it.
Where does discrimination law come in?
The statutory flexible working route and the Equality Act 2010 are separate, and the second is usually the stronger claim. A blanket attendance requirement that bears more heavily on employees with childcare responsibilities can amount to indirect sex discrimination. The firm would have to justify it as a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.
For a disabled employee, a change to hours or location may be a reasonable adjustment, which is a duty rather than a request the firm can weigh. Handling it as an ordinary flexible working request is a common and expensive error.
An employee must not be subjected to any detriment or dismissed for having made a flexible working request. Where attendance is treated as a proxy for commitment in appraisal or progression decisions, that is where the risk usually surfaces.
Common mistakes
- Treating a policy as the law. A firm’s stated attendance requirement is a management decision, not a legal position, and it does not displace the statutory route.
- Refusing without consulting. The consultation duty already applies. It is not something that arrives in 2027.
- Recording a ground without reasoning. Adequate today, insufficient from 2027, and firms writing template refusals now will have to rebuild them.
- Missing the two-month deadline. It covers the decision and any appeal, and it is the most common procedural failure.
- Handling a disability-related request under the wrong regime. Reasonable adjustments are not discretionary.
- Negotiating on the headline offer only. Attendance expectations rarely appear in an offer letter, which is why they belong in the same conversation as pay and progression.
The statutory route does not give anyone the right to work from home, and reading it that way is why so many requests fail. What it gives is a process the firm has to follow, a deadline it has to meet, and from 2027 an explanation it has to write down. For solicitors with caring responsibilities or a disability, the Equality Act sitting alongside it is usually where the real leverage is.
Official sources
- Acas Code of Practice on requests for flexible working, in force 6 April 2024
- Government factsheet on flexible working under the Employment Rights Act 2025, February 2026
- Employment Rights Act 1996, sections 80F to 80I, as amended by the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023
- Flexible Working Regulations 2014, as amended by the Flexible Working (Amendment) Regulations 2023
- Equality Act 2010, sections 19 and 20
Last updated: 3 August 2026.