Part-Time Partners

According to Part-time Partners: How Women Lawyers are Reaching Greater Heights with Fewer Billable Hours, a feature in this month's edition of Working Mother Magazine, law firms are increasingly offering partnerships to reduced-hour lawyers. 

Pamela Miller, an equity partner at Arnold & Porter and mother of two, works a reduced hour schedule, making time for soccer games and school conferences. 

“I don’t believe in apologizing for the fact that I’m a working mother,” says the 38-year-old equity partner in Arnold & Porter’s litigation practice. “If I send out an email about things going on at home, people will get a mixed message about whether or not I’m available. I use technology to the greatest impact to be available. Sometimes it means taking a call from a soccer field instead of the office.”

Southern Ms. Part II: An Advantage of the Opt-Out Assumption?

It seems that some women in the Mid-South may be benefitting from the assmption that they will opt-out. A friend is interviewing for associate positions with BigLaw firms here. One veteran local lawyer gave her the following tidbit, which I found just fascinating: it's easier for a woman to get an associate's position in this market than a man, because the assumption is you'll work hard and devote yourself to the firm for five years or so and then leave to have children, i.e. you'll never be in competition for partnership.