Work-life balance is increasingly an issue for burned-out lawyers of both genders, parents in particular. Law students interviewing at firms increasingly ask whether they’ll have a life once they have a job. Our roundup keeps track of this hot topic for you.
Wolff, 49, said he decided � not without much heartache � to go in-house last fall with VantagePoint, a longtime client, for three reasons: for the challenge of new work; to get away the administrative headache of law firm life (like tracking billable hours); and to spend more time with his family.
Wolff has now logged more than a year at the venture capital firm, which has more than $4 billion in assets under management, and said he’s done well on his first two goals, but not on the last one. In fact, he’s working 15 percent more than he did at Wilson, he said.
LaWer said he didn’t take a pay cut to join Compensia, but said he believes he would’ve made more in the long run as a partner at a big law firm. That’s a price he’s willing to pay: “I can’t buy back the time,” he said. LaWer used to come home every day after work, take a break for dinner, and then work from 9 p.m. to midnight.
Although Compensia consultants don’t practice law, there are a fair number of lawyers working there. The company was co-founded by Timothy Sparks, a veteran lawyer from Wilson Sonsini and, as LaWer likes to say, they’re all “recovering attorneys” there.
