Work/Life Balance in the Law

by Elizabeth Harrin (London)

It’s not easy balancing work and a home life. Throw in clients who need you to be available at all hours, managers who don’t believe in vacations and court dates that change at the drop of a hat and you have to wonder why anyone chooses the legal profession at all.

“There are definitely days when the balance is better than others,” says Kate Maynard, whose litigation practice at Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson in Charlotte, North Carolina, focuses on the resolution of corporate, securities, fiduciary and financial products disputes. “You just have to work through those days and have a back-up plan with friends, family and others. A supportive and involved spouse is also key.” Maynard feels that one of the keys to having a successful legal career is being prepared for emergencies. Having a back up plan means that it’s easier to handle a crisis at work or home.

“One of the reasons that I selected trusts and estates as a specialty area is because it lends itself to scheduling,” says Christy Reid, a colleague of Maynard and one of the state’s leading attorneys in estate planning and probate law. “It is easier to be flexible because, for the most part, I can set my schedule in advance.” Reid was one of the first attorneys at the company to adopt a flexible schedule, back in the 1980s. Her children are now grown up, but having a practice area that was more adaptable to flexible working meant that she could organise her time better when they were younger. There are areas of law that lend themselves to better scheduling, and if you’re keen to make a success of your career and have a life outside work then it’s worth considering what you choose to specialise in.

You can also think about what size company you’d like to work for. “A woman may want to consider working with a larger firm since there will be multiple people in an area and more coverage,” says Reid. “Working solo or with a small firm, you may find that you are the only one with a certain expertise which limits your options for a flexible schedule.”

However willing you are to make sacrifices in your area of practice or the company you work for, much of your work/life balance will be dictated by the culture of the people with whom you work. And nothing can get more prickly than the subject of vacation time.

“The issue of vacation time is a real problem,” says Lauren Rikleen, author of Ending the Gauntlet: Removing Barriers to Women’s Success in the Law. “Even though many law firms have generous policies around the amount of vacation time allowed, there is tremendous pressure – subtle and otherwise – to take less than what may be permitted, and even more pressure to work while on vacation.” Rikleen gives the example of a woman who told her that she had been criticized by the partner with whom she works for taking half of her allowed vacation time. The partner didn’t acknowledge that while she was on vacation she had been in regular communication with him on client matters. “In many workplaces, the culture is hard-driving, and an atmosphere is created such that a person who chooses to take his or her vacation time appears less of a committed worker.”

If you find that it’s too difficult to balance a full-time legal career with the rest of your life, you could take a leaf out of Mary Hutchings Reed’s book. Literally. She resigned the partnership in Winston & Strawn in the 1990s to devote more time to writing. She’s used her experience in the law to write a novel, Courting Kathleen Hannigan. “I assumed the title ‘Of Counsel’ and created with the Firm’s management a compensation scheme which was fair both to me and the Firm, without minimum hour commitments or minimum compensation guarantees,” she says. During the time she’s worked Of Counsel, she has written another five novels, a memoir and a musical.

“I think the biggest obstacle which women face in achieving balance is the ‘I want it all/I can do it all’ mentality,” she adds. “As a younger lawyer, I gave much more time to practicing law than I do now; I didn’t write at all then, and now I do. We also have to realize that at different times, we may have different priorities, and will be unbalanced in some way. At any given point in time, you simply cannot have it all.”

That doesn’t stop many of us trying, and drawing on those around us to help us when things get tough. “In my neighborhood there are a number of young professional women who are working to balance career, family and community service,” says Maynard. “We have a small group that shares meals once a week. Whoever is cooking, cooks enough for everyone and that way we are all assured of great home-cooked meals.” Maybe that’s one of the reasons that Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson won the Balanced Life Workplace Award from the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys in 2005.