1 March 2019 5 min read

March 8th is International Women’s Day and we’re celebrating at Hybrid Legal. At Hybrid, we are very proud of the percentage of women we have working for us; moreover, the amount of our Associates that are working mothers. Our business model is centred around working with a range of self-employed individuals, 60% of whom are working mothers who wish to continue their careers whilst staying at home to look after their children. We asked our working mothers to tell us why they love working for Hybrid. 

One of our Associates works with us all the way from the USA and reflects on her ability to work remotely.

“I’m grateful to Hybrid for the opportunity to work both remotely and flexibly, something still quite rare. I get to work for open-minded clients and do challenging work, whilst being able to be around to take my children to school, to watch them pass their swimming test, or help them with their homework (although the last one isn’t always fun!). I’m so glad I can continue to use my legal brain and use the skills I trained years for, as well as support my family”.

We also work alongside working mothers locally, who appreciate their ability to work from home. Sharon Nineham, mother of two, reflects on her experience being self-employed.

“Being a working mum is never easy as you are trying to juggle family and work life and constantly having to prioritise.

Having the ability to work flexibly and choose when you work plays a massive part in getting the work life balance just right. Being self-employed and an Associate of Hybrid Legal, I no longer have the guilt of not being able to attend school events or equally feeling bad asking for time off work to attend school events. Now I manage my work diary around my family diary which takes a lot of pressure away from me.”

We love giving working mums this opportunity and we love hearing all the great examples of how being self-employed has helped them to spend quality time with their children as well as pursuing a career. We also love hearing all the funny stories! Laura Delacroix-Humphreys reflects on her career balancing her young children and work.

“Like many working mums, I returned to work after a short period of maternity leave when my eldest two children were 5 months old respectively. There then ensued a number of years of madness. Our lives were blurred by a flurry of weaning onto the bottle, settling in with Nanny’s and Grandparents, bag packing, car seat swapping and shelling out the majority of my earnings on childcare. On top of that was the guilt. I felt guilty about leaving my children in the care of other people. I felt guilty for not meeting my own aspirations and expectations at work. We did this for four years and then enough was enough! I left and set up my own business.

I now run a successful legal practice from home. I have always taken my children to school and collected them, arranged playdates, helped with homework and dealt with the tears and frustrations of bullying and friendship issues. I gave up a partnership for all of that and wouldn’t change it for the world.

Our youngest child became my little assistant from 12 weeks. I was the travelling lawyer with baby in tow. He would sit in his rocking chair at the head of the table whilst I conducted meetings with clients. I deal with phone calls and emails whilst walking around museums, sitting in soft play areas and going on bike rides with my children. I always get a great job done, on time, for my clients but I work around my children and their needs. My clients respect me all the more for this and value the professional service that I deliver.

Being a working mum is really hard. Whichever way you choose to do it, you are setting a fantastic example for your children and doing the very best that you can. 

I always remind myself that if I can handle a meeting with clients where they have resorted to shouting at each other in my office whilst my teething 5-month old baby is sitting on my lap, crying and his nappy has leaked, then I can handle anything.”

Today, as well as every day, we appreciate the working mums who work for Hybrid and they appreciate us too. We pride ourselves on giving women the opportunity to not have to give up work to look after their families.

Happy International Women’s Day!

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Bernie Payne

Bernie is a law graduate from King’s College London and has almost 20 years’ experience in commercial law and regulatory compliance. Her areas of expertise include contract drafting and negotiation, data protection, government policy and legislation implementation, commercial risk management and corporate governance.

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