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The connections that have long shaped legal careers are under threat as flexible working arrangements reshape the profession, with two lawyers warning junior practitioners risk losing vital opportunities to build networks, confidence, and the practical skills needed to thrive.
As the legal profession continues to embrace flexible working arrangements, the traditional moments that once shaped workplace relationships are increasingly moving online, with conference room conversations replaced by Zoom calls and in-person connections becoming harder to foster as lawyers spend fewer days in the office.
While the benefits of work/life balance are clear, the next generation of lawyers may be missing out on the small but significant moments that happen between meetings, across desks, and in office corridors.
These interactions have long influenced and shaped the careers of senior practitioners.
Bree Knoester, principal lawyer at Brave Legal, and Caroline Tuohey, head of practice legal at Avant Law, have cautioned that while the impact of reduced opportunities for connection may not be immediately visible, it could have lasting consequences for how the next generation of lawyers develops.
The benefits of such opportunities
Although networking is often associated with formal events and exchanging business cards, its real purpose extends far beyond first introductions, enabling young lawyers to cultivate trusted relationships that underpin a more collaborative and supportive legal profession.
In a profession where difficult matters are inevitable, Knoester said these relationships can become an invaluable source of support, helping lawyers navigate the profession’s toughest challenges by providing trusted colleagues to lean on.
“We know that the law can be a challenging profession, and the more we connect with each other, the easier the job is,” Knoester said.
“All of a sudden, that ‘frog’ file that you avoid is a little easier because you have spoken to the lawyer on the other side before and know she is a good, kind operator with whom you can have a trusting conversation.”
Beyond expanding professional circles, she stressed that building strong professional relationships not only sharpens lawyers’ advocacy skills but also creates a trusted network of colleagues to rely on when the profession inevitably delivers its toughest days.
“Even though you may be nervous to present at a settlement conference, you have developed advocacy skills during professional discussions – and you have a network that you can rely upon when we all have that inevitable ‘shocker’ of a day,” Knoester said.
Reflecting on her early years in practice, Tuohey highlighted that support from fellow junior lawyers can be one of the most powerful antidotes to self-doubt and impostor syndrome that often shape the early stages of a legal career.
“I’ve made friends with my impostor syndrome after 25 years as a lawyer, but in the early days, my fellow junior solicitors were the ones I could be 100 per cent honest with and be supported, knowing they felt the same way!” Tuohey said.
“I love the flexibility now entrenched in our profession, but connection is impacted.”
Yet as the profession’s embrace of flexibility continues to reshape how lawyers work and interact, Tuohey warned that the decline of in-person connection risks leaving a generation of young practitioners navigating the challenges of legal practice with increasing feelings of “loneliness and feeling isolated”.
A generation entering law differently
The changing nature of professional networking has been felt most acutely by lawyers who entered the profession during COVID-19, when remote work replaced many traditional relationship-building opportunities and reshaped how emerging lawyers connect, collaborate, and develop their careers.
While many experienced lawyers have established networks built over years in the profession, Knoester warned that the rise of remote work has created a widening gap for junior practitioners, who have missed out on the informal relationship-building opportunities that traditionally shape the early stages of a legal career.
“We seem to have all developed an inherent reluctance to get out and about as much as we used to. A cancellation after work? Oh, yay, I can get my trackies and Netflix on! We all feel this!” Knoester said.
“But whereas more experienced or older practitioners already have a professional network, junior lawyers have very often missed out on these experiences as they entered the profession during COVID and now work in a COVID-modified profession where we can spend years without seeing each other ‘in real life’.”
Tuohey also argued that one of the profession’s biggest shortcomings is that networking opportunities continue to be dominated by formal professional and business development events, leaving few opportunities for junior lawyers to connect authentically with their peers.
“Often, networking events are tied to a law firm’s business development, which is also important, but it requires a lawyer to have a different persona and mindset compared to gathering informally with your peers,” Tuohey said.
Rethinking what networking looks like
To address these challenges, Knoester said her firm is making a conscious effort to create more informal opportunities for face-to-face interaction, giving junior lawyers the chance to learn, build meaningful relationships, and develop alongside their peers.
“At our firm, we are challenging this by always proposing informal settlement conferences and mediations in person, at our office (we try to find really nice biscuits to make this easier,” Knoester said.
“We also highlight and encourage when our junior practitioners are picking up the phone, going out for a coffee with a colleague, coming into the office to be proximate to a good learning opportunity like a mediation going on.”
However, she stressed that the profession still has more work to do, calling for a fundamental rethink of how it engages and supports the next generation of lawyers through networking opportunities that are more inclusive, contemporary, and designed to foster genuine connection.
“But the profession can do a lot more for this cohort – but we have to make it fun and contemporary! My very early years in the profession saw us attending functions where we may be the only women, or where the focus was on drinking or a sport that we may not love,” Knoester said.
Putting that philosophy into practice, the pair have created the Junior Medical Negligence Lawyers Dinner at Maison Batard, designed to bring together junior lawyers from different firms and both sides of the profession in a more relaxed environment.
“Caroline and I developed the Junior Medical Negligence Lawyers Dinner at Maison Batard, where we created tables with a mix of firms and plaintiff/defendant lawyers, ensured we were in a beautiful (and safe) space, and added a dash of delicious French food,” Knoester said.
“It was right after work, in the city, gorgeous and collegiate.”
