When Being Smart Isn't Enough

Current Debt: $183,542.33Current Income: $0/month

Getting back into work after taking some time with your kids

I recently attended a symposium on work-life balance where the keynote speaker was Deborah Epstein Henry.  She was there to talk about her FACTS program.  In a portion of her talk, Debbie mentioned some current initiatives at Big Firms aimed at helping with the work-life balance concerns of women.  Most that she mentioned, I was aware of already because of blogs like Ms. JD.  Most were programs seemingly aimed at making the unbearable billable hours requirements more bearable or aimed at creating reduced-hour alternatives for lawyers.  However, she also mentioned that some firms are putting into place initiatives aimed at bringing back their "regrettable losses" -- i.e. attorneys that leave the firm that the firm wishes would have stayed and that may be in a position to come back at some point in the future.  One such program is the "Sidebar" initiative at Skadden and, frankly, I am not sure how I missed it. (JDBlissblog.com covered it last month here.)  You can find some information on it on Skadden's Women's Initiatives page here even though I think the program is not just for women.  According to the site:

Through Sidebar, attorneys in good standing may decide to leave the firm for any number of personal reasons for up to three years (more than the six-month maximum permitted under a leave of absence), with the expectation that they will return to the firm at the end of that period consistent with the needs of the firm and their department. The firm expects and encourages Sidebar participants to remain connected, for example, by attending certain firm-sponsored events and gatherings and continuing legal education programs.

This is not intended to be a plug for Skadden but more of a head's up to other law firms.  I think this is genius.

Reminder: Register for free NYC networking event by MAY 15 (the event will be on June 4th)

If you'll be in New York next month and you haven't yet registered, consider attending the free networking reception & presentation at White & Case on June 4th with Debbie Epstein Henry talking about the Best Law Firms for Women ranking she undertook with Working Mother Magazine last year. (We covered her survey here and here.) The deadline to RSVP is TOMORROW, May 15th. Hope to see you there! More details after the jump...

Loving what you are doing

I stumbled across a great little article about successful women attorneys today, here.  (Okay, so I am a few weeks behind on my reading!).  This article in New York Magazine is, for once, all about successful women lawyers and talks to many to find out their secret to success.  It is refreshing to find an article that, while starts with an introduction that sounds much like the Ms. JD Mission Statement, is really not so much about why women leave the profession but, instead, what makes the successful ones stay. 

What is their advice to young lawyers and other women executives? In a nutshell, you have to be prepared to work very hard for very long hours, they say. And, unless you really love the work, it won’t be worth that very high cost.

So true.

Southern Ms. Part V: The Good Life

So lately I've been thinking that this is a really good place to live. Good people, good work, good culture. Especially when you're a young professional and the cost of living is a fraction of what it is in New York or California.

Lawyers here make six figure salaries but live like millionaires would in the bigger legal markets because the cost of housing is so low that they have much more disposible income.

Best of all those six figures come with a considerably lower time commitment. Sure if you're in trial you'll be busy, but for the most part lawyers here seem to work fairly reasonable hours. Nothing like the all-nighters and long weekends my friends in BigLaw are pulling on the coasts. No kidding, 9-5 is realistic and 8-7 is considered cruel. And these are in the big law firms here - so you're still getting the benefits of good staff support and insitutional weigh that come with BigLaw posts in other cities. It's made me think that this whole work-life balance, billable-hour rebellion is (just like the "opt-out revolution") the problem of a very small fraction of women lawyers in this country.

May 6th in Chicago: NAWL's 3rd Annual "Ready to On-Ramp?" program on re-entry

Jenner & Block's Chicago offices host this year's NAWL program specifically designed to help lawyers develop their own personal strategy for re-entering the workforce. Looks like it will be a great program - especially for the bargain price of $30!

Work-Life Balance, not just a plea from us Ms. JD bloggers

One of my favorite blogs, The Juggle, has a post today about young doctors that are looking for some work-life balance and steering clear of jobs where they would be expected to be on call at all times in the life.  At the end of the post, Sara writes:

Despite the downsides, this industry shift toward family-friendly solutions was probably hard to imagine just a few decades ago. Might there be a similar shift on the horizon in other industries, like consulting, i-banking, or big law?

Now, as I just said, The Juggle is one of my favorite blogs.  But, wake up and smell the movement already.  I am sure the readers of Ms. JD know that there is a real swell of exasperation with the lack of work-life balance for Big Law attorneys.  Women lawyers, are everyday choosing career paths with better work life balance.  What we need is better work-life balance on all paths.

A good comment on the post's comment string says:

“…and they say, ‘I’m not doing this, I’m not doing that,’” which makes the older doctors realize they’ve been had. It’s not this generation’s fault that the older docs were duped into working long hours for little reward.  No, “We’re not doing it,” and we’ll get paid just fine working a job with reasonable hours, zero call, and family time.

Symposium on Lawyer Happiness

Syracuse Law Review just published a symposium issue on Perspectives on Lawyer Happiness. Particularly worth noting is Theresa Beiner's Not All Lawyers Are Equal: Difficulties That Plague Women and Women of Color, 58 Syr. L. Rev. 317 (2008).

Open invitation to Debbie Epstein Henry talk & networking reception in NYC @ White and Case (RSVP required)

Catherine Gratton and Kelly Hoey at the White & Case Women's Network have extended an invitation to Ms. JD readers in the NYC area to attend a free networking reception & presentation on June 4th with Debbie Epstein Henry (one of our favorite women in law) talking about the Best Law Firms for Women ranking she undertook with Working Mother Magazine last year. (We analyzed her survey results here and here.) You can RSVP online until May 15th. See the flyer after the jump for more details...

Is being somebody's spouse a full time job?

The WSJ Online recently published this article that reports the findings of a recent study that women professionals are more likely than male professionals to be divorced, with women MBA's twice as likely as male MBAs. These findings of course raise all sorts of issues (including culture, societal pressures, work life balance, ambition) and we could go on and on about the differences between men and women in today's America.

While the article suggests that professional women are "opting out" of marriage and family in order to have careers, the point at the end of the article is interesting to me:

Ms. Hewlett believes more is at play than just a prevailing image that high-earning women are a threat to men. Suggesting that highly successful women are attracted to similarly successful men, she put forward the idea that such women "can't summon up the TLC and support that high-earning men need."

Her advice? Well-educated, highly compensated women should be targeting particularly loving and supportive men.

This begs the question, then, whether being a supportive spouse is a full time job. Afterall, as a professional woman, I don't have time for another full time job -- something's got to give and maybe for many women that something is their marriage.

However, to some how suggest that high earning men "need" full-time spouses to support them and that high-earning women do not is well, insulting to men and I don't think a factual concept at its core (society may tell men they need such a wife but that doesn't make it so). Her statement suggests that the men are leaving their high-earning wives because the women don't give them TLC. (The old "blame the woman for not being a 'good wife'" argument that society can't seem to lay to rest.) What if its the women that are doing the leaving because they just can't have two full-time jobs and to expect them to is ridiculous? Oh, and what if these women also need support and TLC from their spouses? One thing I will say is that it is my belief (not based on a scientific study but more anecdotal) that financially secure women are more likely than similarly secure men to think they can go it alone if faced with an unsupportive spouse-- hence the opting out of marriage makes sense. (This is the bottom line of the post on this topic at The Juggle and I agree.)

As for her advice, in the end... I too would argue that professional women need loving and supportive spouses. Perhaps the fact that more professional women are divorcing than their male counterparts and many more are staying away from marriage in the first place, suggests that (a) such "particularly loving and supportive men" are just not around or (b) that we just can't have two full time jobs.