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.
Each year the group has tinkered with its methodology. In 2006, the students only looked at firms attended by Yale Law summer associates. Last year, the students culled their data from the National Association of Women Lawyers, rather than conducting original research.
Some results were heartening. The group found, for example, that the firms are giving men an average of eight weeks of paternity leave. Other findings — including that, even in the most family-friendly firms, women make up only 19 percent of partners — were more daunting.
But some firms are hard at work to change that last statistic. At Dorsey, 10 out of 16 of the 2007 partnership class were female, and four of them were working part-time. The firm has a female managing partner in Marianne Short, and partner — and former presidential nominee — Walter Mondale is a frequent advocate for promoting women into leadership positions.
While only 7 percent of associates at the winning firms work part-time, many of them are adding policies to boost this number. At Debevoise, more than 50 lawyers are working part-time; 12 of the partners have worked part-time at one point or another.
“Probably what makes us distinctive is that we have had women working part-time for over 40 years,” says Margaret Davenport, one of the co-heads of the part-time group. In fact, Davenport became a partner in the corporate group in 1995 while she was working part-time. “You don’t need to ask permission or strike a deal to work part-time.”
Other firms have helped lawyers take extended leave without losing their job security. At Arnold & Porter employees can take a leave of absence of up to three years. During that time, the firm continues to pay bar membership fees and helps with continuing legal credits. In-house day care is available for parents who choose to return to work.
Among the innovations adopted by Covington, which is on the Yale list for a second year in a row: an increased capacity for telecommuting and a new heath-advocacy program that offers advice on family health care issues.
“It’s not about the success of individual lawyers,” says Andrea Reister, a co-chair of the Covington’s diversity committee and partner in the patent litigation group. “It’s about the success of the firm balancing the lives of their lawyers.”
Rachel Breitman is a reporter for The American Lawyer, a Recorder affiliate based in New York.
