Whether, when and how to balance starting a family with advancing a career in the legal profession are difficult questions attorneys—especially women attorneys—have wrestled with for decades. And while it’s clear there are no one-size-fits-all answers, there is a common view among many women who have juggled building their careers with building their families: It’s very difficult to do without a flexible work environment—and no one should have to.

“You are going to lose such a vital and vibrant part of your workforce,” said Ashley Senary Dahlberg, a mother of two young children and a commercial litigation senior associate in the San Antonio office of an Am Law 50 law firm. (She asked that the firm’s name not be used in this article.)