The long lunch — long regarded as a staple of City corporate culture — has been widely seen as in decline, pushed out by the rise of hybrid working, tightening budgets, and a younger generation of professionals who increasingly prefer alcohol-free socialising. Yet within London's law firms, the tradition is not merely surviving; it is being actively revived, reports Rosie Harris-Davison.

At many firms across the capital, the extended lunch retains a firm foothold. Partners are deliberately championing the practice internally, aiming to build associates' confidence and encourage them to step away from their desks to entertain clients. Alcohol, while entirely optional, is not discouraged.

Nor is it limited to lunch. Mayfair's members' clubs and high-end hotels are reportedly filled with lawyers hosting clients over breakfast — smoked salmon and scrambled eggs in particular — as the client breakfast enjoys a noticeable resurgence.

Eversheds Sutherland, a City-based firm, is providing each of its lawyers with a £350 budget dedicated specifically to client entertainment, City AM has learned. As artificial intelligence adoption accelerates across the firm, leadership is leveraging these budgets as a mechanism to ensure the next generation of lawyers cultivates face-to-face client relationships.

The move reflects a broader shift underway across the legal sector, where AI tools are increasingly handling tasks such as document review, due diligence, and legal research — work traditionally assigned to junior associates. As routine technical work becomes more automated, firms are weighing what skills the next generation of lawyers will need most, and client relationship-building is moving to the centre of that conversation.

Chris Halliday, senior office partner for London at Eversheds Sutherland, said that while the firm is “seeing the benefits of AI adoption” across the business, “we also recognise the need for our next generation lawyers to be able to engage with our clients and develop trusted relationships with them.”

“We feel that this is best achieved through face-to-face interactions – not just at a senior level, but at all levels in the firm – our juniors need to build confidence and develop these skills, both along with senior colleagues, but also independently,” Halliday added.

He said the firm is “therefore encouraging them to spend as much time as possible with clients and contacts, building and maintaining their networks and have made funding available to every lawyer in our business to encourage them to do so, whether over coffees, lunches, dinners, attending conferences and events.”

Several other major firms — including Quinn Emanuel, Winston Taylor, and Baker McKenzie — confirmed they maintain similar client-entertainment policies for their junior lawyers. The competitive dynamics of the City legal market, where firms vie for repeat instructions from corporates, financial institutions, and private equity clients, have long made client retention a strategic priority — and personal relationships remain one of the hardest advantages for competitors to replicate.

Mayer Brown, another City firm, has for years operated a structured events programme designed to put junior lawyers directly in front of clients. London managing partner Dominic Griffiths said: “We inaugurated our NextGen initiative, through which our associates set up events with clients and organise speakers and other activities around eight years ago; this was a unique initiative and has received universally positive feedback from our clients.”

“I will always seriously consider any associate request to entertain core and target clients,” Griffiths told City AM.

Gen-Z Associates Reluctant to Call Clients

The push comes at a time when younger professionals are frequently criticised for workplace habits that diverge from those of senior colleagues, including a reluctance to engage clients through traditional face-to-face or telephone interaction.

Business leaders surveyed in Deloitte's 2026 Gen Z and Millennial survey expressed concern that an “early reliance on technology could hinder human capabilities such as critical thinking, communication, empathy, influence, and social skills” among younger generations entering the workforce.

Senior partners at Winston Taylor told City AM that many younger staff at the firm feel “hesitant to pick up the phone to call clients” while in the office.

However, the partners noted that the same generation is “very keen” to meet clients in person — driven in part by a growing awareness that AI could reshape their future roles, making the cultivation of personal client relationships more important than ever.