Could wider use of flexible work schedules make it easier for women lawyers to advance in their careers? The Project for Attorney Retention thinks so, and it’s enlisted several general counsel to the cause. These GCs have pledged to give more assignments to flextime lawyers at their outside counsel. The goal is to reduce the penalty that attorneys may feel they’d risk if they asked for unconventional hours.
“There is a stigma that people working a nontraditional schedule do not work as hard,” says Jeff Gearhart, general counsel at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., one of the companies that’s partnered with PAR. “I submit that they work even harder.”
