When lawyers Amie Frydenberg and Emma Purdue returned from parental leave, they faced a challenge familiar to many working parents: how to continue building successful careers while working reduced hours.
Rather than accepting that career progression and part-time work were incompatible, Lander & Rogers supported a job-sharing arrangement that ultimately helped both women achieve promotion to partner.
A common challenge for working parents
Like many professionals returning from parental leave, Amie Frydenberg and Emma Purdue were balancing competing demands at work and home. They wanted to continue undertaking challenging, meaningful legal work while also meeting family responsibilities. However, their roles in a busy employment litigation practice presented unique challenges.
Court schedules, client commitments, urgent legal matters and team responsibilities made a traditional part-time arrangement difficult to sustain. There were concerns about maintaining continuity for clients, managing workloads and ensuring opportunities for career development remained available while working reduced hours.
The challenge reflected a broader issue faced across many workplaces: how to retain talented employees and support career progression without requiring full-time attendance.
Creating a different solution
With encouragement from their practice group leader and support from the firm, the 2 lawyers established a formal job-sharing arrangement in 2018. Rather than dividing responsibilities unevenly, they designed a structure that provided continuous coverage for clients and colleagues throughout the week.
Each lawyer worked 2 independent days per week, with a shared overlap day every Wednesday. The overlap day allowed them to transfer knowledge, discuss client matters and ensure seamless management of ongoing work. This approach meant urgent matters could continue progressing even when one person was not working.
The arrangement required planning, coordination and leadership support. It also required trust between both participants and confidence from clients and colleagues that work would continue smoothly across two professionals rather than one.
Benefits for employees, clients and the business
The model delivered benefits beyond flexibility alone. Clients maintained uninterrupted access to experienced legal support throughout the week, while colleagues benefited from consistent availability and continuity of service.
For the lawyers themselves, the arrangement reduced the pressure often experienced by part-time professionals. Both reported feeling more organised, efficient and productive. They also gained confidence that urgent matters would be managed on their non-working days, allowing them to focus fully on family commitments when away from work.
Importantly, the job-share enabled both women to continue undertaking significant and challenging legal work rather than being forced to scale back their ambitions.
Career progression without compromise
The strongest evidence of success came in 2021 when both Amie Frydenberg and Emma Purdue were promoted to partner. Their advancement demonstrated that part-time work and senior leadership are not mutually exclusive when organisations are willing to adopt innovative approaches to flexibility.
The pair have since become advocates for flexible work, highlighting its value not only for parents but also for employees caring for elderly relatives, managing health challenges or transitioning towards retirement.
Lessons learned and wider impact
In their 8 years of job-sharing, Amie and Emma maintain a thriving practice while remaining as flexible and collaborative as ever. The lawyers now adopt a 3/4 working day split with 2 overlap days for collaboration.
The experience shows that successful flexible work arrangements require more than policy statements. They require thoughtful design, managerial support and a willingness to challenge traditional assumptions about leadership and career progression.
The approach forms part of a broader commitment to flexibility at Lander & Rogers, where 17% of partners, 56% of special counsel and 21% of senior associates work part-time. 21% of the firm's employees work part-time, and while women continue to make up the majority of employees working flexible or reduced hours, the proportion of men working part-time has also grown, helping to normalise flexibility across the workforce.
The outcome is a clear example of how flexible work can help organisations retain talent, support gender equality and create pathways to leadership for employees at every stage of life.
Resources for employers
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