Recently in Work - life balance Category

This post was written by Nicole Garton-Jones:

The Demographic Landscape of Law

"The recent Law Society of BC Report on the Retention of Women in Law Task Force notes as follows:

• Women have been entering the legal profession in BC in numbers equal to or greater than men for more than a decade, yet represent only about 34% of all practicing lawyers in the province and only about 29% of lawyers in full-time private practice; and
• the legal profession in BC is aging and there will be a net reduction in the number of practicing lawyers - a looming shortage - as older lawyers retire without a corresponding increase in younger lawyers joining the profession.

The February 2007 cover story of California Lawyer magazine was entitled "We're Outta Here: Why Women are Leaving Big Firms." The article noted the serious issue of high attrition rates from the legal profession:

"The past few years have witnessed the highest levels of associate attrition ever documented, with an average annual attrition rate for both sexes of 19 percent, as recently reported by the NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education. Within five years of entering a firm, more than three-quarters of associates leave. Female associates were nearly twice as likely as males to depart to pursue a better work/life balance."

The article's key quote was:

"If law firms want to get the best and brightest young women to join them and stay, they will likely need to change radically and adopt different definitions of sacrifice and partnership."

Talking points for the rest of the article include:

• The Personal Wellness Landscape of Law (Or Lack Thereof)
• How a Virtual Law Firm Structure Enables Heritage Law to Attract and Retain Lawyer Talent
• How it Works - Technology
• How it Works - Schedule 

Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Slaw.ca, 19 January 2010

Reproduced with permission of Simon Fodden, founder of Slaw.

In the news: "In law school and in practice, lawyers always talk about balancing acts, notes attorney David Koller. As a solo, there are two separate ones he thinks of all the time: balancing marketing and actual legal work, and balancing his private and professional life. Koller, who is in his first year as a solo practitioner, discusses his approach to marketing in this early stage of his solo career, and how his flexible schedule is helping him to maintain a better balance among work, play and family."

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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 20 January 2010. Copyright 2009.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Posted by Chuck Newton: "I do not know if I can be accused of being a good lawyer, but I am certain I can be accused of not thinking too hard.  But, let us face the truth.  We all tend to come up with our best stuff -- out best ideas -- our best thinking on a subject when we are distracted and thinking about something that we sometimes more pleasant.

I am, of course, talking about that "aha" moment -- that break through in thinking moment -- that point where things seem to coalesce in our brain.

This is the problem I have with those lawyers that disregard the concept of work-life balance or blending.  Those that think you take a new associate, chain him or her down at a desk staring at documents 60 hours a week, might be expanding billable hours, but they are not promoting creative lawyers..."

Continue reading this interesting post at the source site listed below.

Source: Chuck Newton Riders the Third Wave, 1 November 2009

Posted by Jim callow: "Every now and then you get backed up. In my world right now, it is having too many things you would like to blog about when I have three or four major papers due in the next few days. My friend Dennis Kennedy dealt with that problem by starting a Dennis Kennedy Microblog. Well, I'm not ready to go there yet. But today I am going to try a microblogging exercise as I clean out my "to blog about" box and also pass along several interesting things that I learned about today. So hang on for today's tech news and tips with a load of links for you to follow, if you desire.

Lifehacker's Exhaustive Guide to Saving Your Smartphone's Battery

Ben Stevens gives us 20 Tips for More Efficient Google Searches

Oh, boy. iPhone users will soon be able to make free calls with Skype

Google Blog: Quickly View Formatted PDF's in Your Search Results (like the IRS online forms)

Technology Enables New Work-Life Norms

YouLaw: If Pixar Created a Law Firm Video

Why Companies Are Switching From BlackBerry To iPhone

ABA TECHSHOW Blog: 5 Great Feature Enhancements to Expect in PowerPoint 2010

Larry Bodine's Checklist for Law Firm Associates

Dan Pinnington: Lawyers as Targets of Fraud: The Common Misconceptions

Ethics of Metadata Comparison Chart Updated to Include Vermont"

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog, 8 October 2009

Posted by Carolyn Elefant: "Julie Tower-Pierce and I are happy to announce that we've finally completed our 50 page ebook, The Part Time Shingle:  Why Starting a Part Time Practice Can Be Done and How to Make It Work.  Here's some of the topics that the e-book covers:

-Is starting a part time shingle really feasible? [p. 2-3]

-Will people take me seriously if I'm only working part time? [p. 5-6]

-I'm working in a coffee shop to make ends meet as I get my practice off the ground. How do I handle this situation? [p. 6-7]

-I'm a contract lawyer buried in document review 10 hours a day.  Is starting a part time practice workable for someone in my position? [p. 8]

-What practice areas work best for part time? [p. 9-11]

-Can I buy part time malpractice insurance? [p.13]

-Can I moonlight at my day job at a law firm while I work at my practice at night? [p.14-15]

-What are some time management ideas for running a practice while I raise kids or work at another job?  [p.16-18]

-What are some low cost, time efficient ways to market my part time practice? [p. 19-22]

-What kinds of tech works best for part time?  I'll only have a part-time salary, so I don't want to make a full time tech investment. [p. 23-25]

-I'm returning to the work force by starting a firm and my tech skills are out of date?  Can I still make this work? [p.25]

-How much can I earn working part time? [p.26-27]

-Can I hire help even as a part timer working from home? [p. 29-31]

-At what point should I quit my day job and fly solo full time? [p.32]

In addition to these topics, you'll find a Part Time Shingle Check List, Sample Schedule and 15 minute a day social media strategy.

In addition to the ebook, you can also purchase the 75 minute recorded teleseminar.  The products are available at Pink Slips & Detours or by ordering directly below"

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: MyShingle, 6 October 2009

In the news: "In a world where technology enables so much, it is time for law firm leaders to acknowledge and embrace the fact that employees can access information and provide good counsel from almost anywhere. That makes telecommuting viable for anyone. What does this mean for law firms?"

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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 1 October 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe  <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Do not take my word for it.  Check out the article on American Lawyer entitled Not That Into You.  It reports on a study entitled After the JD, which tracked 5000 lawyers who began practicing in 2000.  In short, what is life like eight or nine years out of graduating from law school?  How well were these lawyers expectations of the future met?  The results, to some, might be amazing.  To us Third Wavers, carpet commuters, connected lawyers, future lawyers, untethered lawyers, solos, small firmers, home office lawyers, virtual lawyers and the like, we have known the results in our hearts for a long, long time.

Here is what the study found.  It is not all about prestige and money.  As stated,

"new lawyers working for firms of more than 250 lawyers are less satisfied with their jobs than their counterparts in smaller firms," and that  "[g]raduates of the most selective schools are the least satisfied with their jobs at large firms, while graduates of less selective schools are relatively more satisfied."

The article has some notions of why this is so, including graduates of elite schools are "groomed to expect success" whereas lower-tier graduates are more likely to view a job at a large firm as "a coveted reward for hard work . . . not to be squandered."

From my position and observations, the issue is not as much about money made as debt incurred, the life style that must be maintained, the image that must be presented, the hours that must be worked, the time for friends and family that must be squandered, and the satisfactions, as a result, that is lost.

Sometimes, when you as a solo or small firm attorney find yourself in a pity party about how you avoided these so-called riches, or did not apply yourself better to get into a "better" law school, or achieve a level where Big Law might be interest, you might count your lucky stars that you are a more humble and contented person."

The active link is available at the source site listed below.

Source: Chuck Newton Rides the Third Wave, 26 September 2009

In the news: "There's good news on the part-time front, reports The Project for Attorney Retention, an organization that promotes work/life balance policies in the legal profession. It has just released what it describes as a "ground-breaking study," spotlighting the success of part-time partners. Many part-time respondents interviewed for the study have "significant books of business," bill 1200 to 1600 hours annually, and hold leadership roles at their firms. Also of note, a significant number are litigators."

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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 25 September 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi: "Ah, the heady days of a year ago. It was a time when lawyers believed they could have it all -- economic success and a personal life to boot. A lot has changed in the intervening year, little for the better. With the economy still in the tank and many law firms still struggling, has the legal profession lost sight of its quest for that elusive prize, work-life balance?

At Adam Smith, Esq., fellow Law.com blogger Bruce MacEwen recently bemoaned its disappearance. "Among the phrases, and phenomena, that now seem so hopelessly 'last August' is that of the fabled Work-Life Balance." Within the legal profession, MacEwen believes, work-life balance "waxes and wanes in synch with demand and supply in the lawyer talent market." More importantly, he suggests, the highest performing firms, the cream of the global crop, will never be lifestyle firms. High performance and work-life balance are simply incompatible, he contends.

Having shown his cards on the question, MacEwen put it to his readers, in the form of a poll. Now he has posted the results of that poll. Out of 170 votes, here is how they tallied on the question, "Work-life balance is":

Flatly incompatible with firms performing at the highest level, 39 votes.

Compatible with high performance if it helps retain talent, 29 votes.

So last August, 26 votes.

Achievable in firms of all stripes given flexibility, 20 votes.

A useful notion only in the "lifestyle" cohort of firms, 15 votes.

An indulgence affordable to firms only in times of high lawyer demand, 14 votes.

A weak accommodation to lawyers who aren't serious, 10 votes.

A humane and "evergreen" virtue responsive to reality, 9 votes.

A disservice to high-performing professionals, 8 votes.

If you categorize these votes as representing positive or negative views of work-life balance, they add up to 112 negative and 58 positive, "or nearly a 2:1 ratio of negative to positive views," MacEwen calculates. That would seem to substantiate MacEwen's opening observation that work-life balance, like so many things lawyers once believed in, is so last August."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Blog Watch, 3 September 2009

Posted by Carolyn Elefant: " Perhaps there's an upside to the downturn after all. As this article, from Working Mother magazine describes, law firms are more willing to accommodate flexible schedules these days -- not necessarily out of noble motives, but because it's financially expedient to do so.

The article describes a bunch of changes at law firms, many of which are news to even someone like me who's been tracking this issue since the start of my beat here at Legal Blog Watch. According to the article, of the 50 Best Law Firms for Women, nearly all offer reduced schedules to lawyers, while 62 percent offer full-time telecommuting, and 42 percent have written flexible-schedule policies. Still, I'm a little bit skeptical -- and I wonder how many women are actually taking advantage of those full-time telecommuting options. The article doesn't say.

Still, a desire to work fewer hours now coincides with law firms' desire to cut costs. So some firms are allowing lawyers to reduce their hours to a 60 percent schedule and retain full-time healthcare, an arrangement that is preferable to layoffs. At some firms, experienced lawyers are paid by the hour on a project-by-project basis, which enables firms to offer high-quality service at lower costs.

All of the changes are heartening, but it's not clear how much they'll help younger female associates. Most of the lawyers mentioned in the article who've been provided the hourly-work arrangements or reduced time are experienced, partner-level attorneys in their 40s or even 50s. Most of these women had at least a full decade of uninterrupted work experience before having children and have plenty of options available to them. So it's no surprise that firms are now trying to retain them. But for younger associates with families who don't yet have work experience or a client roster, it's not clear how helpful these new flex policies are in practice.

Still, the article emphasizes one important point about the workplace and work/life balance: It's all about the economics. Now that times are bad, firms are finding it financially advantageous to offer flex time. But once the economy ramps up again, there's little guarantee firms will be so flexible. Ultimately, the lesson for lawyers who want work/life balance or any other benefit from law firms, in good times or bad, is this: Find a way to make yourself economically attractive, and you can write your own ticket."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Blog Watch, 11 August 2009