While Shalla Prichard was a senior associate with Baker Botts in Houston in 2010, she decided to work reduced hours for 1.5 years to care for her ill mother and new baby. Friends told the corporate lawyer her decision was a professional disaster.
“Friends at other firms said it was career suicide, ‘No one does that in their seventh year, it will take you off the partnership track,’ ” Prichard says. “ I get teary even thinking of this. Not only was the firm unequivocally supportive, it just never was an issue.” A 2003 graduate of the University of Houston Law Center, Prichard says she still made partner on time on the firm’s eight-year track.
