Cut Hours,Cut Salaries and Increase Profits?

Increase your profitability while increasing work/life balance at your firm--that according to a study published in the ACC Docket.

Diversity and Work/Life Balance Are Interconnected

The Progam on Attorney Retention has teamed up with corporate counsel to look at the interconnection between increasing diversity and offering flexible schedules to women and minorities (as reported in the National Law Journal).

One partner's thoughts on balancing motherhood with law firm life

I first stumbled across Kathleen J. Wu's article in the Texas Lawyer almost two months ago. In the article, Wu, a partner with large law firm Andrews & Kurth, was curious as to the effect that now larger law firm salaries would have on practicing attorney mothers in Texas. As she notes, female attorneys understand that there will be have to be some kind of sacrifice to earn their new higher salaries.

What was so striking to me was that Wu, herself a partner with many professional accolades to her name, had no easy answers for women "trying to have it all." She acknowledges that she has no better answers for female attorneys striving to strike a professional balance with motherhood than she did twenty years ago.

But she is trying. And she wants to have answers.

She notes the increasing proliferation of women's initiatives in law firms and speculates that the market will demand reconciliation between these two competing interests. Like Wu, I hear a lot of about women's initiatives, but I have yet to hear much about its practical execution.

The Vault rankings are out!

I was on vault.com today and noticed that the firm rankings for 2008 are out. Of particular interest are their Quality of Life rankings with the Top 20 Law Firms to Work For. Looks like McKee Nelson takes the top overall honors this year.

I always find the "hours" section of the quality of life rankings particularly interesting. Winstead Sechrest is ranked 6th this year for hours, which comes on top of their announcement last week that they will not raise first year salaries to 160k (unlike many of the big players in Texas), instead focusing on a higher bonus structure. Another Texas-based firm, Thompson & Knight, also made the best hours list. On the other end of the spectrum, Thompson & Knight was one of the first Texas-based firms to raise salaries recently. I wonder what effect this will have on the rankings for these two firms next year?

Suzanne Howe
BCG Attorney Search, Texas

How to keep associates happy?

Frank M. D'Amore had this interesting article last month in the Texas Lawyer on stemming associate attrition at law firms. Frank had some compelling recommendations for firms, like requesting direct regular feedback (not just yearly) from associates, more associate integration activities (like one-on-one attention from partners and well-thought out events), and also really rewarding associate successes.

Frank makes a special point to say that this new generation of lawyers value work/life balance more than its preceding generations. I agree with Frank. And I can tell you that any firm that makes strides in this area will make serious headway in its associate retention numbers.

Texas is undergoing another round of associate salary increases. Rumors abound about which firms will raise and which ones will not. I can't help but think about whether this latest round of increases will have an effect on associate satisfaction. Undoubtedly more money will equate to some level of happiness for some. But higher salaries do not materialize from the air. There is a price. We can debate and debate where the money will come from (lower PPP? higher rates for clients? partners billing for associate-level work?), but there will be some trickle down effect for associates at some level and to some degree, associates will be working harder for their dough.

Wouldn't it be nice if some of the Texas-based firms didn't jump on board with the salary increase and instead reduced their billable hour requirements? Wishful thinking or recruiting brilliance? Unrealistic naivete? As Brian Wilson sang, "wouldn't it beeeee nice?"

Getting Control of Your Hours

The central career issue of our day is finding meaningful work which leaves time for our personal lives. Professionals who charge for their time know this firsthand. In the legal profession, where the pressure to bill more hours has never been greater, this is particularly true.

But choosing a career in law does not automatically require you to sacrifice your whole personal life. With some deliberate thinking and good career planning, it is possible to enjoy a measure of work/life balance even at some of the top law firms. Here are 5 tips for making this a reality. While this list is based on what I know about the legal profession, the principles apply to other professional services business as well.

1. Focus on work that has predictable flows.

Following your interests is good career planning. But most of us have multiple interests. If you have the choice, choose work that is more predictable. In law, stay away from high stakes litigation where you will be subjected to unpredictable deadlines. Avoid becoming a high powered “deal lawyer” who works on large mergers and acquisitions, IPO’s or other highly time sensitive transactions. Stay away from entrepreneurial clients who want everything to happen yesterday. Instead, choose to focus on work that has more predictable deadlines. In corporate practice, that might mean securities compliance or bank lending. In real estate, that might mean leasing work. If you do choose to spend part of your time on “interesting” litigation matters, make sure you balance out your work with other matters that are less time sensitive (e.g. appellate work.)

2. Early in your career, be a “yes” person and do great work.

If you demonstrate early in your career that you are ready, willing and able to sacrifice nights and weekends for the sake of the firm, you will have a lot more leverage to say “no” when you are more senior. Your ability to say no later on will also increase if you earn the reputation for doing great work.

3. Build strong partner and client relationships.

Taking the time to build your relationships with partners and clients will also give you move leverage in the future. If you have good relationships, you will find it easier to ask a partner or a client if he or she really needs something by the following day.

4. Find a firm where the culture supports outside interests.

Believe it or not, firm cultures do vary. While work/life balance is hardest to achieve at large law firms, there are some small and mid-sized law firms that do high quality work but still manage to allow partners and associates to pursue personal interests. Of course you have to do a lot of homework to find these firms; but they do exist. Talk to associates and ask them what they do outside of work. Find out whether partners are at the office after 7 p.m. on a regular basis.

5. Learn some time management skills and learn to delegate.

I left this one for last because time management does not solve the underlying problem if you simply have too much work to do. On the other hand, managing your time and learning to delegate more effectively can help you to make better use of the limited time that you do have for work.

Are You Living In The Moment?

Life at the Bar linked to this interesting post by Doug Constant. I am always intrigued when I receive reminders to live in the moment as I'm always two steps ahead. This is a real problem area for me. I am ALWAYS thinking of my "to do list" or the next entry on my personal goal worksheet (which resides only in my head, but is ever-present, nonetheless).

I think it's an important lesson to slow down occasionally and just breathe. Doug says, "When you die, there will be two dates on your tombstone: the date of your birth and the date of your death. Those two dates will be separated by a DASH. It is this dash that represents your life. Are you truly Living Your DASH on purpose?"

Read on for Doug's advice on Living your DASH:

Principle 1: You are either living YOUR life or someone else’s. Our society places beliefs on who we should become, how we should act, what we should buy and even how we should dress. Once we make up our mind that we are here to live our own life and not the life our parents, friends, teachers and acquaintances then we can live our own life based on the talents, gifts and passions we know to be.

Principle 2: The people that enter your life are the right people... the good and the bad. Those troublesome people are important reminders of wrong directions, ideas and philosophies. Those few exceptional people remind us they cared enough to be a part of our life. Either situation makes them precisely the right people.

Principle 3: Whatever happens…happens. Accepting this focuses attention and appreciation on the present moment, thereby excluding all of the might-have-beens, should-have-beens and what-ifs. "What is" is the only thing present at the moment. Appreciate that!

Principle 4: Whatever happens is the right time. This is an admonition to take things as they are and when they happen. This is living in the moment and a cardinal prerequisite of Living Your Dash.

Principle 5: When it’s over it’s over. This is basically the flip side of the preceding one. Everything has a beginning, middle and end. All three must be appreciated, most particularly the end when it comes.

The one law is a strange one. It is called The Law of Two Feet. Stated succinctly, if at anytime you find yourself in a situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your two feet. Go somewhere else. Do something useful. Live Your Dash. Stay in the moment and don’t get stuck in the moment.

Living in the moment means leaving behind a life of societal status quo, which by definition is the accepted way of doing things. The path of least resistance can be attractive. But by living in the moment you do precisely what you have been gifted to do…take action and therefore Live Your Dash.

Women Are "Staying" in Droves

Almost 80% of women who leave law firm practice end up staying in or returning to the workforce; and more than 50% of them stay in the legal profession. In other words, female attorneys are not leaving either the workforce or the profession to be stay at home moms. But they are opting out of law firm practice at far greater rates than men. As a result, although men and women have been graduating from law school at equal rates for the past 15 years, women still only account for 17% of the partners in law firms. Those are some of the key findings of a new study just completed by the MIT Workplace Center . Robert Ambrogi of the Law.Com Blog Network writes about the study here .

Yesterday, I attended a reception at the Federal Courthouse in Boston where Mona Harrington of MIT did a great job of presenting the results of her research. Judge Nancy Gertner, who was a major catalyst behind the study, and Lauren Rikleen, past president of the Boston Bar Association and author of a terrific book on how law firms can begin to address the lack of female advancement in the legal profession (Ending the Gauntlet: Removing Barriers to Women's Success in the Law) also gave articulate presentations which quickly went to the heart of the issue (i.e. that law firms can do a lot more to promote the advancement of women.)

Afterwards, I received an e-mail message from Sheila Statlender, a clinical psychologist in Newton, Massachusetts who sits with me on the BBA Standing Committee on Work/Life Balance. She also attended the session and had some interesting things to say. Here are some excerpts from an e-mail she sent to the members of our committee:

Findings which indicate that female attorneys are not opting out, but rather finding work outside of law firms, and in astonishingly high percentages at every stage (associate, partner, etc.) provide important documentation, and refutation for those claiming that women really are just "choosing" to be stay-at-home moms.

OK, I admit it - at first I thought - this is not new news. We've been hearing it and saying it for quite a while. Women aren't progressing in their career paths and are earning significantly less than their male counterparts. "Opaque" discrimination now makes it harder to identify factors such as less desirable work assignments, inferior mentoring and tougher challenges with regard to business development. This doesn't seem so much a wake up call, as it does a signal from the "snooze alarm:" we've heard it before, and now it's blaring again. But we also know that change happens slowly, especially in large, powerful and at heart conservative organizations (like law firms). So I say bravo to those of you who continue to reset the alarm, letting it blast, rather than simply shutting it off.

I do have a question for Lauren especially: you really are calling for in essence a revolution in the legal profession: an overhaul of how firms handle compensation, what kinds of professional practice and activities will get acknowledged in terms of the bottom line, and along with this, a necessary shift in the values which underlie these practices. What kind of response are you getting from your audiences, from firms, from individuals? Is anyone hearing and responding? Can you give us some hope here?

I couldn't help but think, as I listened to the presentations yesterday, of comparisons with other professional fields. Physicians, for example (female and male alike) are standing by as more and more of their professional freedoms are slipping away. Health insurers are dictating reimbursement and even basic medical practice. It has occurred to me that many professionals are in the position that factory workers found themselves in in previous decades - only factory workers formed unions and were able to go on strike. They found ways to take back or establish power (ok, maybe I'm idealizing a bit). Can anything comparable be done in the current arena(s)?

Since I am sharing my morning musings and subjecting you all to some stream of consciousness (except for those of you who may have had the wisdom to hit the "delete" button already :-) I'll take it one step further. I fantasized about a walk out of female attorneys, hopefully accompanied by their male supporters - perhaps only an hour or two in length, to protest current conditions and to express support for the ideas/strategies proposed at yesterday's briefing. Or an all day conference, a sort of pre-planned walkout, filled with workshops on getting better asssignments, business development, the work-life continuum (I agree with Lauren that "balance" is not a realistic term!), self-care, etc. - not held on the weekend, but pointedly during the workday.

The Wonderful World of NALP

I am waiting for my flight out of lovely Denver back to my hometown of San Francisco. I have at least another hour until my flight boards and my thoughts turn toward introspection. This week I and my colleagues at our recruiting firm (BCG Attorney Search) met here in the Mile-High City to attend the yearly NALP convention to swap stories and chat with our clients—law firm recruiting coordinators. It was a fun time, replete with an exciting giveaway (we gave away a Mini-Cooper to one of our clients), surprise snow storms (good thing our Boston recruiter was along to help drive!), and way too much rich food and, ahem, conviviality.

Well. My report back from speaking with scores of law firm insiders is that things are humming along at a consistent, brisk pace—one we have become accustomed to over the last few years. Firms are hungry for great talent, eager to discover how they can better attract that talent, and enthusiastic for the future in the near term (remember Uncle Friedman’s injunction: there is no long term!). At any rate, the good news is no “new” news. This is a wonderful time to spread one’s legal wings, find a new platform, and make a move up, or sideways.

As I am often want to remind my candidates, this does not mean it is a good time to just strum along and go with the flow. Rather, US attorneys are being given the gift of relative freedom and openness in the market to explore, grow their practices, and add new skills. In my view, this is given to us for a purposes, and there is little “karmic waste” out there. What does that mean? It means that the chance to grow is an opportunity we must grasp firmly in order to weather whatever storms come along down the path tomorrow.

On the other hand, it is also a good time to reflect, ponder and analyze professional and personal goals and strengths. If you haven’t done so yet this year, then take time out to make hay while the sun shines, and do yourself the favor of paying attention to number one: you! (Click on this link: http://bcgsearch.com/crc/buildlegalcareer.html for some thoughts on how to jump-start the creative process!).

Declutter Your Career

WSJ's Career Journal has an interesting article by Sarah E. Needleman on Decluttering Your Career this week. The article advocates the idea that by removing extraneous distractions that get in your way, you can free up time, gain energy and work smarter. The article has five suggestions:

1. Define your goals, including personal and career aspirations. Write down where you want to be in five years, then make clearly- defined annual objectives to help you reach your ultimate goal.

2. Don't avoid difficult projects. Make your most difficult task your top priority then "chop it into smaller pieces." It will seem much more manageable once you do this.

3. Don't overload on e-mails. Cancel newsletters, listserves and other mailings that aren't useful to you. Create folders that organize emails that aren't acceptable for deletion.

4. Reduce the chit-chat. Excessive socializing is a drain. Make sure you set boundaries for yourself so you aren't constantly interrupted.

Returning to the work-force after being a stay-at-home mom?

Continuing my discussion of working mothers from a couple of weeks ago (which incidentally resulted in an interesting discussion on law.com's Legal Blog Watch), I am mentioning here an article I saw in the WSJ Career Journal on what to do with your resume after staying at home with a child.

The article advocated being very forthcoming on your resume when you have stayed at home for a period of time raising a child. In fact, instead of leaving a gap, which could give a firm or company pause, the idea is to include your experiences as a stay-at-home parent. The article mentions Carol Fishman Cohen's advice, co-author of the book, "Back on the Career Track," which is to say, "I made the decision to stay home, and now I can't wait to get back."

I constantly tell my candidates that the purpose of a resume is to answer a potential employer's questions and of course, to sell yourself. The more questions an employer has, the more likely a resume is to end up in a trash basket. Employers read resumes in seconds, not minutes, and gaps are bad, even if there are reasonable explanations for the gaps. "Gap Moms" (or Gap Dads) shouldn't apologize for their commitment to their families, but rather make a notation in their resume that explains the time that they took off for their family's sake. I am eager to hear opinions on this advice.

How to get a family-friendly position at a large firm

In the years that I have been engaged in legal recruiting, I have worked with several really top-notch female candidates that wanted to return to an exciting practice within a large firm after having a baby, but did NOT want the hours associated with a full-time partnership track position. I relate to these women who "want it all," for I myself want a rigorous and stimulating job, but also want to spend quality time with my child. It is a delicate balancing act.

For all of the media attention that the firms try to gain for proclaiming their family-friendly atmospheres, they rarely advertise part-time or reduced billable hour positions. These positions are usually found through back door methods (for example, a friend at a firm) and my experiences in placing these women have only confirmed my suspicions that female-friendly (i.e., family-friendly) large law firms are difficult to come by.

I have, in fact, placed and gotten offers for women with reduced work schedules. But the interview process is tricky. In order to successfully negotiate, these women had to interview as if they wanted a full-time position, then sit back and wait for an offer. Then once the offer was in hand, they negotiated their hours. Simply put, they had to make the firms believe they were indispensable before they showed all their cards.

Hillary Mantis at vault.com has some interesting thoughts on family-friendly options. I am also curious to hear from women who have successfully found family-friendly attorney positions after having a baby. Feel free to add your comments.

Leading a Sustainable Life

Julie Fleming Brown has a nice post on sustainability. How do we lead lives that are "sustainable"? Julie discusses the problem of "burning on both ends of the candle" and suggests a number of practical steps to reduce stress and decrease the chances of burnout ("focus your attention and practice on what is meaningful to you," "delegate those tasks which negatively impact your energy level", "connect with other people," etc.)

Although I am in the search business and only earn fees when lawyers decide that it is time for a change, I think it is important to first apply some of Julie's suggestions before throwing in the towel. Maybe you can get more of the technology work you like and spend less time working with the banking clients who are less interesting to you. Maybe you can delegate some of the drafting you don't like to a skilled paralegal. Perhaps you can make more effort to leave work early on Fridays.

If you find ways to make your work more "sustainable", you may just find that it is not necessary to change firms in order to increase your career satisfaction.

Time IS Money

New research by Stanford Business School demonstrates that for individuals who bill by the hour, the world can turn into a 24 hour clock divided by dollar signs (I discovered this link courtesy of Stepanie West Allen who writes the blog Idealawg.) Of note, the study talked about lawyers who "admitted to mentally ticking away lost income for each minute they stood on the sidelines while watching their kids play soccer admitted."

What this highlights for me is how easy it is for your life to get out of balance if you bill for your time. Lawyers who live by the billable hour should set aside breaks in their day/week/month/year when the clock is not running. This can't be done informally. It must be deliberate. And so as I sit here on a Sunday blogging away (and I don't even bill for my time), I realize it is time to sign off and go eat lunch and play with my kids (and get ready for the AFC playoff game!)

Getting your brain around "happiness"

Every day of my working life I talk to attorneys who are looking for something to make them "happier." Mostly they think that a new firm will get them "there." And sometimes they are right. Even if they aren't, usually when attorneys have picked up the phone to initiate a relationship with a recruiter, they have "crossed the Rubicon" and have no intention of staying at their current position. It then falls to me to find the gig that is going to get them what they want: more money, better work, more prestige, a chance at parnership--happiness. Thus, I always, always, always try turn the recruiting experience into something more than musical chairs. The "more" part is a process by which the candidate will really evaluate his or her past successes and failures and delve in to that part of the mind that holds dreams, pet projects and wild fantasies about a future practice.

I do all this because I do not believe that happiness comes from "work-life balance." There is no such thing. I do not believe that working more or less, harder or easier, upside down or backwards is going to make anyone happier. Rather, I believe that happiness comes from an ordered mind. And the only way to get to that state of orderliness is to start rummaging through the detritus that accumulates there. We have to sort through the nagging little thoughts here and there that pull us toward something new and different. If we can take control of that mess, that protoplasm of thought and angst, and really look at it all, structure it, corral it, we can start a rational process that will help us get our actions into line with our dreams. If you don't think that will get you to happiness, maybe you've never experienced it. Ecstasy? I hope so. Joy? Surely. But happiness?--that state of calm pleasure, of contentedness with one's life, an absence of unreasonable fear, a state of habitual clarity of thought and unhurried productivity? Think about it.

Is your career on course?

If you are like most attorneys, the thought of planning your career past the next few months can be daunting. However, those that do plan their careers--and take the time to periodically evaluate whether they are on track--are much more likely to have a satisfying career.

Here's a recent article I wrote on this subject, which provides four quick questions you can ask yourself to determine whether your career is on track. http://www.lawcrossing.com/article/index.php?id=2356. I hope you enjoy.

Time Management Reminders

In today's Career Journal some good reminders about time management. Nothing particularly new here but it is always good to be reminded of some of the fundamentals as the New Year starts (i.e. know when you work best, set deadlines, control your environment, eliminate unessential work, work on the go.)

For associates, controlling your environment is probably the hardest (it's hard to tell a partner to go away.) But getting drafting done in the early hours before partners arrive is one way to limit interruptions. Similarly, associates may not alway get deadlines from partners (particularly partners who are disorganized); but nothing stops you from asking for deadlines. Getting clarification can help you better plan your own time.

New Year's Resolution: Happiness?

Over the holidays, I arrived at my brother-in-law's house to witness a truly massive pile of presents waiting under the Christmas tree for all of us to open. Once the wrapping paper was off and the gifts were in hand, I wondered whether the expense we had all gone to was merited by the enjoyment we would receive from the abundance of consumer goods. Was the toil and hard work worthy of the gifts we had in front of us?

The most recent issue of The Economist explores the concept of happiness and how it can be empirically measured. The article mentions John Maynard Keynes, famed macroeconomist, who "imagined that richer societies would become more leisured ones, liberated from toil to enjoy the finer things in life." But Keynes found that in richer societies, people continued to work very hard. "They work hard to afford things they think will make them happy, only to discover the fruits of their labour sour quickly. They also aspire to a higher place in society's pecking order, but in so doing force others in the rat race to run faster to keep up. So everyone loses."

As the new year begins, many lawyers find themselves wondering how they can enrich their lives. Taking stock of activities that enhance your life and identifying activities with a deleterious effect can be a useful exercise.

Do you have a beautiful home, but spend an hour of your day commuting to its suburban location? Do you spend your lunch hour eating heavy meals instead of improving your health by joining the gym next door to your office? Could you possibly work "smarter" instead of longer, and give yourself a chance to go one of your son's baseball games? Are you staying in your high-paying job in order to afford the luxury car and the expensive house, but at the cost of your health and happiness? Come to think of it, there is a 6 o'clock yoga class today. I think I will go.

A Work/Life Balance Calculator

Want to figure out how many hours you need to be at your office in order to meet your billable hours target? JD Bliss blog has created a calculator to help you factor in all of your non-billable time (vacations, legal holidays, commuting time, meals, administrative and other non-billable tasks, etc.) and arrive at a more accurate picture of how many hours a week you need to work.

Kids Fight Back on Blackberry Use

The Wall Street Journal today offers some cautionary notes about blackberry addiction (subscription required.) In an article aptly entitled "Blackberry Orphans", the Journal explores the growing resentment that children have about parents who are constantly checking their blackberries.

Clearly, the blackberry is a great tool for enabling busy parents to "have it all" (i.e. work in high pressured legal jobs but still attend kids soccer games.) The key, as the article points out, is to know when to turn it off. Kids know when you are not paying attention and they will resent it.

I am reminded of an experience I had while snorkeling off the coast of Maui.

I also confess that I have been know to sneak off to check my own e-mail once or twice while my kids are brushing their teeth (last night, for example.) It's not always easy (I always thought that the "Just Say No to Drugs" campaign that Nancy Reagan championed oversimplified the complexity of fighting an addiction.) But as with any kind of change, the first step is to recognize the problem.

ROI for Work Life Balance Programs

JD Bliss links to an article in Computerworld on work life balance and suggests that lawyers should bring this article to the attention of senior management at their firms.

Computerworld does do an excellent job of laying out the traditional business case for allowing flexible staffing (the high cost of replacing employees who leave, the positive impact on morale at firms that offer flexibility, the institutional knowledge that stays with the firm, the increased productivity of happier employees.) But the article focuses mainly on the IT profession. I would imagine that senior partners at many major firms would find ways to distinguish the practice of law.

The business case for allowing flexible work arrangements in the law is similar to the IT profession. But the attorney/client relationship is often a more personal relationship and anyone arguing that flexible staffing makes business sense in a law firm must also address the issue of client service (i.e. how to ensure that clients who are paying top dollar are getting the high level of customer service and the high quality of legal representation that they expect.)

Certainly law firms can save on recruiting and training if they find creative ways to reduce turnover. However, they also need to be more creative about finding ways to staff deals and litigation matters in a way that ensures the client always has access to a professional that he or she trusts.

Great Article on Burnout

Legal Sanity links to a great article in New York Magazine on the subject of burnout. While the New York article does not focus much on the legal industry, blogger Arnie Herz notes a reference at the end of the article to the American Lawyer survey of mid-level associates. The article points out that the number one and number three firms in this year's survey both had a perfect score on their support for pro bono work.

So what is the reason for this? Does pro bono work provide lawyers with a greater sense of purpose? Do these firms support pro bono by counting pro bono hours when calculating an associate's billable hours?

Have Children During Law School?

Now there's a thought! After all, you have more flexibility when you are a student.

Of course this requires you to have a spouse who will support you through law school (not to mention the requirement that you meet someone with whom you want to raise a family.)

How Coaching Can Help With Balance

Ellen Ostrow offers her thoughts on how working with a coach can help lawyers achieve better work/life balance. Her interview appears on the website www.lawyerswithalife.com .

Dealing With Distractions When Working From Home

RainToday.Com has a good article on how to work more effectively from a home office. I followed most of these suggestions for the eight years I worked worked from home. My conclusion after reading the article: I would have been even more productive had I done everything on the list.

When You Live to Work and Your Boss Works to Live

Dealing with a workaholic boss is a huge challenge if you are trying to work a reduced schedule. In the law, this is particularly challenging since clients have such high expectations (wouldn't you expect a lot if you were paying your rates.) But there are ways to deal effectively (and ineffectively) with a workaholic boss who keeps scheduling meetings when you need to leave to pick up children. Suggestions in today's Career Journal.

New NALP Publication on Work/Life Balance

In Pursuit of Attorney Work-Life Balance: Best Practices in Management provides new data on the strategies utilized by employers to support attorney work-life balance and on the nature of the conflicts attorneys experience between their work responsibilities and personal/family priorities.