Sometimes, you don't need a book.

Naomi Gray was an associate at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker when she took maternity leave more than a year ago. Not ready to return to the 2,000 billable-hour grind, she resigned at the end of March. Her return to work this month, to a much smaller firm, came as the result of good contacts and lucky timing.

On Monday, after an extended baby break, she joined six-lawyer San Francisco firm Harvey Siskind as a partner. "I wanted a little more flexibility, where I could still practice at the high level but could also spend a little more time with my children," Gray said.

Gray says conversations with Lawrence Siskind, name partner at the IP litigation firm, began informally over lunch at the start of the year.

The two had originally met through the Copyright Society of the USA, where Gray had been chapter chairwoman. Siskind took over the post after her. Siskind said he hadn't worked with her on any cases, but had talked to people who had, and "she got stellar reviews."

Siskind hopes Gray will be able to attract new clients and grow business from existing clients. The firm has worked with Intel and the Rockstar energy drink company. He said the firm risks losing time and some investment, but the three partners are confident in their new addition. "None of us are risk-takers in our firm," he said. "We're all very conservative, and we've spent a lot of time thinking about this."

The lunches started out as social gatherings, but talks took on a more serious note when Gray indicated she was done with big-firm life, Siskind said. (Full disclosure: Siskind is a Recorder contributing writer). During one lunch at Town Hall restaurant, Siskind said, he thought: "I'm going to pick up the check, and I'm going to get my money's worth. I'm going to talk to her and see if there's a chance that she'd consider us."

For her part, Gray said, after talking to Harvey Siskind partners, she was drawn to the firm's niche in copyright and trade secret work and came away confident that the firm started 10 years ago was around to stay. She noted the firm recently made a couple of hires for 2010, too, which "for a firm their size in this economic climate, speaks volumes."

Those offers, Siskind said, went to Hastings College of the Law third-year Kathleen Noone, who the firm expects to join as a first-year next fall, and to Stanford Law School second-year Susan Leah Champion, for a summer associate position.

Siskind said the firm's been busy thanks in part to competitive rates: Partners charge between $500 and $600 depending on the work, he said.

In considering how she'd re-enter the work force, Gray said, she had crossed big firms off her list due to the billable hour requirements for a partnership track. But she did consider going solo.

Though she didn't have any clients to kindle a practice with, she said she felt optimistic she could tap the network of people she had built in the course of more than a decade of practice, first at Weil, Gotshal & Manges and later at Paul Hastings. What she worried more about, she said, was how to manage a solo practice once it grew busy. Harvey Siskind, she said, was "almost a perfect solution" to the problems she perceived and the flexibility she sought.