Miscellaneous

PAR Names Work/Life Role Models to Advisory Council

Posted on March 01, 2007
PAR is very pleased to announce that it has named to its Advisory Council the following outstanding individuals and organizations that are role models for best practices in the work/life area: Amy Bess, Partner, Sonnenshein, Nath, & Rosenthal LLP Doug Coblens, Executive Vice-President, Discovery Communications Erik Corwin, Partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP Mary Cranston, Partner, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP J...

An Ill-Advised Article

Posted on February 23, 2007
This article left me scratching my head ... over just who was clueless enough to think up the idea for writing it. I hesitate to even discuss it here for fear of giving the article more publicity than it deserves, but here goes anyway.The article is about women leaving the law and their reasons for doing so -- mostly because they decided that they weren't cut out for the law...

Part-Time Partners

Posted on February 05, 2007
Gregory Gallopoulos, managing partner of Jenner and Block, has written a terrific article about part-time partners ("How to be a Full Partner on a Part-Time Schedule", available on law.com). A main point of the article is that partners who work reduced hours need to contribute to the firm economically and in other ways, such as mentoring and firm support...

Associates v. Partners v. Clients

Posted on February 02, 2007
Stephanie Ward of the ABA Journal has a new piece out that is sure to stir some conversation -- if not a hornet's nest. The article, "The Ultimate Time-Money Trade-Off," appears in the February issue of the ABA Journal and is available for a limited time online at the ABA Journal eReport...

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Flextime for the Rest of Us

Posted on January 08, 2007
A recent article in the NY TImes, "Flextime for the Rest of Us," features P.J. Himmelfarb, one of the two Weil Gotshal flex-time partners. Ms. Himmelfarb joined Weil 4 years ago after one of her twin daughters was diagnosed with autism. From the beginning, she worked a flexible schedule which included moving around the country to seek new therapies for her daughter...

More on Fenwick & West

Posted on January 05, 2007
Thanks to Ralph Pais for a quick response regarding Fenwick & West's work/life policies. He confirms that the firm has a terrific reduced hours policy, and has put together several programs to support its successful implementation. The firm is also planning to feature work/life issues at its upcoming all-attorney firm retreat...

Fenwick & West Implements Innovative Diversity Program

Posted on January 05, 2007
Jesse Seyfer of The Recorder reports on a laudable new program at Fenwick & West that ties partner compensation to how well the partners support the firm's diversity goals ("Fenwick Redefines Color of Money with Diversity Goals"). Partners are given a list of suggested activities to improve minority recruiting and retention, among other things, and then associates are allowed to evaluate the partners on how well they performed...

Where Are Women in Law Firms?

Posted on October 29, 2006
A new report from NAWL provides a good snapshot of where women are now in the legal profession. The report is available here, and the press relase here.NAWL sent a survey to the 200 largest law firms in the U.S., and 103 responded. Based on those survey responses, NAWL reports that about half of associates are women, and women make up 28% of "of counsel," 26% of non-equity partners, 16% of equity partners, and 5% of managing partners...

New Report: "Opt Out" or Pushed Out?

Posted on October 17, 2006
Many women doubt there is an "opt out revolution", and a new report posted on PAR's website proves their doubt is well-founded. The report, "Opt Out" or Pushed Out?: How the Press Covers Work/Family Conflict" shows that press reports of women choosing to stay home have made sweeping generalizations about female workers from very limited examples of women who are not representative of female workers as a whole...

Job Satisfaction Blog for Lawyers

Posted on September 14, 2006
The headline caught my eye: "55% of Men Would Take Less Pay for a Satisfying Job." The article is one of many work/life articles on a terrific blog for attorneys called JD Bliss. I've been reading the blog for a while now and have been remiss in waiting so long to talk about it...

Excellent Report on Retention and Advancement of Women

Posted on August 30, 2006
The Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia had an Initiative on the Advancement and Retention of Women this past spring (see the Up To PAR blog archive for details about the Initiative).The report of the Initiative is now available for free online at the WBA's website...

What Is It Really Like to Work Part-Time at a Firm?

Posted on August 22, 2006
PAR is frequently asked by law students and attorneys looking to change firms which firms are best for attorneys who want to have a life outside the office and still be able to have a rewarding professional life inside the office. Fortunately, we can often give some insider information, thanks to all the terrific attorneys who share their experiences with us...

Firms Still on the Recruiting/Attrition Treadmill

Posted on August 15, 2006
Natalie's post last week was so good that it is worth repeating. Consider this a p.s. to her 8/8/06 blog below. An article on today?s law.com says that firms are having a harder time recruiting (?Law Firms Rework Campus Recruiting? by Leigh Jones, The National Law Journal, Aug...

Money Isn't Everything: Bigger Salaries Are Not the Solution to Law Firm Attrition

Posted on August 08, 2006
As noted in BigLaw Associate Pay Surges in 2006 in today's New York Lawyer, the big firms have got it all wrong. While PAR is not opposed to raising salaries for junior associates who toil long hours at big law firms across the United States, throwing money at junior associates may get them in the law firm door, but it ultimately will not help firms keep them...

D.A. Rice?s Many Errors

Posted on July 27, 2006
Part-Time ADAs Are Forced to Choose ? Full-Time or No-Time (But D.A. Hopes to Create Second Class Track for Part-Timers in Future) Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice had a choice, and she made a poor one. She chose to force the Office?s dozen part-time Assistant District Attorneys?all women, almost all mothers?to ?choose? between their part-time schedules and their jobs...

Blogging World Abuzz as Attorney Mom is Fired

Posted on July 17, 2006
Denise Howell, a very experienced intellectual property attorney who was one of the first legal bloggers (she is credited with coining the word "blawg"), has been fired from her firm, Reed Smith. You can read her blawg post about her firing here.She says she can't talk publicly about her firing, but she makes it clear that workplace inflexibility (she has a young child) played a part...

Got Kids? Savvy Clients Care

Posted on April 28, 2006
Some female clients are all business ? apparently, this is considered news because of their gender. In ?Got Kids? These Clients Don?t Care,? (Kellie Schmitt, The Recorder, April 26, 2006), two female in-house attorneys were quoted as saying that they want their female outside counsel to give them 100% of their attention and to refrain from discussing their kids...

New Partner Classes: Good News and Bad News

Posted on March 31, 2006
It is time once again to look at the new partner classes at law firms (U.S. offices only) and see how the women are doing. The good news is that an increasing number of firms have new partner classes that are 25 - 33% female...

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