the times | Monday May 2 2022 2GMV2 5
News
Working from home is the new religion
for many, but it could prove to be an
expensive one if businesses follow the
lead of a prominent City law firm.
Staff at one of London’s oldest legal
practices have been told they can work
from home permanently — but it will
cost them a 20 per cent pay cut.
Managing partners at Stephenson
Harwood, a firm that traces its roots to
the early 19th century, are offering law-
yers and other staff a radical post-pan-
demic option that would involve full-
time remote working.
The move comes as law firms and
other leading employers in the Square
Mile wrestle with working routines
after the coronavirus crisis forced busi-
Leave office behind... for a 20% pay cut
Jonathan Ames Legal Editor nesses to embrace remote systems.
Many professional services businesses
have adopted a range of inducements to
lure employees back to their offices on
at least a flexible schedule.
Last week it emerged that another
City law firm, Hogan Lovells, paid Paws
in Work, an animal therapy provider, to
bring in a litter of “adorable puppies” to
offices for two days.
Others have offered free cakes,
lunches, and group cinema evenings to
encourage their staff back to expensive
office space without cracking a three-
line whip.
Stephenson Harwood, which is
renowned as a maritime law practice, is
ranked in the 50 highest-earning legal
firms in the UK. It employs more than
1,100 people and has offices in Paris,
Greece, Hong Kong, Singapore and
South Korea.
The firm confirmed to The Times that
its new working policy would apply to
its London headquarters and most of its
international offices.
The offer will be made to all staff,
including lawyers, but partners will not
be eligible.
Junior lawyers at Stephenson
Harwood have starting salaries of
£90,000 — which means that any who
avail themselves of the offer would lose
about £18,000.
A spokesman for the firm confirmed
that in theory a senior associate solici-
tor with several years’ experience could
opt to work remotely full-time, even if
that person lived in London. However,
it is likely that any associate who adopt-ed a fully remote working routine
would be ruled out of promotion to the
firm’s partnership.
The firm is thought to expect only a
few staff members to accept the offer.
“For the vast majority of our people, our
hybrid working policy works well,” the
spokesman said.
He pointed out that staff at all of
Stephenson Harwood’s offices also
have the option to work remotely for up
to two days a week, according to busi-
ness requirements.
“Like so many firms,” said the spokes-
man, “we see value in being in the office
together regularly, while also being able
to offer our people flexibility.”
The new policy of offering full-time
remote working at the cost of reduced
pay is a byproduct of the firm havingrecruited lawyers during the pandemic
who were not based in London.
Remuneration packages for those
recruits were different from the usual
deals offered to staff in London as those
pandemic recruits worked on a fully
remote basis and were not expected
regularly to attend the office.
The spokesman added that if those
remote staff were required at the
London office, travel and accommoda-
tion expenses would be paid.
According to the spokesman, the
firm is simply extending that practice to
staff who were employed by the firm
prior to the pandemic.
In 2020-21, Stephenson Harwood
recorded a global revenue of £209 mil-
lion. The average pay for full equity
partners at the practice is £685,000.T
he Duchess of
Sussex’s hopes of
producing an
animated series
for Netflix suffered
a setback yesterday (Jack
Malvern writes). The
streaming giant has
dropped Pearl, a show
about the adventures of a
12-year-old girl inspired by
influential women from
history, as it makes a wave
of cutbacks. The duchess
had planned to make the
series through her company
Archewell Productions,
which was set up in 2020 to
make documentaries,
features and children’s
programmes.
Meghan was to serve as
an executive producer of
the show alongside David
Furnish – film-maker and
husband of Sir Elton John –
according to an
announcement published
on the Archewell website
last July.
Harry and Meghan
signed a multi-million-
pound deal with Netflix in- The company said
Archewell Productions
remained a valued partner
and they were continuing to
work together on a number
of projects, including the
documentary series Heart
of Invictus.
Harry, meanwhile, was
back in the saddle on the
polo pitch, enjoying a game
at his local club near
Montecito in California,
where he moved with
Meghan in July 2020 after
stepping down from royal
duties.
The duke, 37, has joined
the Los Padres team,
founded by his friend
Ignacio “Nacho” Figueras,
an Argentinian professional
polo player, fashion model
and occasional writer of
steamy polo-themed stories.
Harry’s team won their
match on Friday 10-7 and
returned to the Santa
Barbara Polo and Racquet
Club for their second match
in a tournament running
until June 19.
Figueras, 45, who models
for Ralph Lauren, posted a
picture of his team of four
featuring Harry wearing
the No 1 shirt, making the
duke the main attacker.
“Thrilled to be riding
alongside my friend, Prince
Harry, and the rest of the
Los Padres team at the
@santabarbarapoloclub’s
Harry East Memorial
Tournament,” Figueras
wrote on Instagram.
“We’ve ridden together
many times over the years
and now that we’re both
parents, it’s extra special
to be able to spend this
time together.”
He said that he named
the team after the Los
Padres National Forest,
which is near by, and as a
nod towards their status asfathers. Figueras, who was
a guest at Harry and
Meghan’s wedding in 2018,
did not say how long his
team would stay together,
but suggested that Harry
was a key player.
Harry is the second
prince to play at the club.
Prince William played
there in 2011 shortly after
his marriage. William’s
middle child, Princess
Charlotte, celebrates her
seventh birthday today. The
Duchess of Cambridge took
a photograph of her with
their cocker spaniel, Orla,
at their Norfolk home of
Anmer Hall.
The duchess is a keen
amateur photographer, and
in 2017 she accepted a
lifetime honorary
membership of the Royal
Photographic Society
which recognised her
“talent and enthusiasm”.Good show
Harry (but
Meghan
loses hers)
Prince Harry enjoyed a winning streak on the polo field in
California and fun with his team-mates but his wife faced
disappointment as Netflix dropped her animated showfa
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a A a i l mPinceHarryenjoyedawinningstreak on the pollo fffililielldididid in PBattle to stop
stiles going
out of fashion
Will Humphries
Countryside CorrespondentWalking across the rolling hills of the
Cotswolds can often involve the un-
gainly vaulting of several stone stiles as
you cross a patchwork of farmers’ fields.
A volunteer group creating the first
interactive map to plot all the stone
stiles in Gloucestershire has discovered
that centuries-old pieces of rural heri-
tage have been removed and destroyed
by landowners in favour of wooden and
metal gates to make access to footpaths
easier for disabled people.
For generations these slabs of stone
have given people access to ancient
footpaths while preventing sheep and
cattle from escaping their enclosures.
Peter Wilson, 85, from Woodchester,
near Stroud, is creating a photographic
record of every stone stile in Glouces-
tershire after becoming alarmed at how
fast they are disappearing.
More than 250 volunteers have sent
him about 1,500 pictures and pieces of
information about stiles in their area,
with many discovered abandoned,
removed or overgrown.
Jayne Tovey, 69, a retired teacher,
had no interest in stiles until she heard
about the project but has now located
more than 640 in the past year. “I will
never stop hunting them, I am totally
addicted,” she said. “They are just so
beautiful and every single one is differ-
ent, but scores of them have been aban-
doned and some lost for ever.”
Four stone stiles have been removed
from a field in her village of Ampney
Crucis near Cirencester in the past 20
years. She has discovered others
thrown into bushes and buried by farm-
ers, and clusters of them revealing for-
gotten pathways which have now been
lost to woodland and hedgerows.
“This is the demise of them,” she said.
“They are just being ripped out and
there is no preservation order on them
and the landowners can do whatever
they want.”
Tovey said the stiles need protection
in light of the government’s recently
updated countryside code advice to
landowners, which tells them: “Access
on your land should be easy for visitors
with different abilities and needs.
Create gaps or put up accessible self-
closing gates instead of stiles where
there is public access, if possible.”
Tovey and Wilson said the subsidies
for landowners should be used to fund
the maintenance of stone stiles, even
where alternative more manageable
access needs to be provided near by.W C W C g yKERRI KERLEY