New York State Bar Association on Leading a Balanced Life in the Law
Last week, the New York State Bar Association’s Special Committee on Balanced Lives in the Law released their long awaited report.
According to an April 9, 2008 article in the New York Law Journal, the Committee’s report, which was adopted unanimously by the State Bar’s House of Delegates last week found what many attorneys already know to be true: the law is an increasingly demanding profession, where attorneys find less and less time to spend with families and fulfill civic obligations which have traditionally been a hallmark of their profession. The report notes that young attorneys who are eager to engage in pro bono activities and serve on the boards of charitable organizations or bar committees lack the time to do so.
The Committee, chaired by M. Catherine Richardson, conducted nine invitation-only forums among attorneys in New York, and worked on the report for over three years before its release.
The report specifically addressed the concerns of female attorneys, noting that “female attorneys have been more vocal about their discontent with the long hours out of necessity,” since they often bear more responsibility for child-rearing, and have to balance family commitments with professional and civic duties. The study noted that many women fear that they will be less respected or that it would harm the trajectory of their careers if they were to have children or reduce their working hours. The study also observed that younger women lack role models of successful female partners who have demonstrated that a reduced-time attorney can be well-respected professionally.
The committee recommended that more firms offer reduced working hour options or flex time, but noted that, of the many firms that have such policies on paper, few attorneys feel comfortable taking advantage of them. There is still a strong stigma associated with switching to a flex-time or part-time arrangement in the law, especially for working mothers. In other words, while many firms have the right policies on paper, there is not a commitment at the top to encourage lawyers to use these policies, particularly women.
Law schools have been at the forefront of the movement for better working conditions for lawyers. Fro example, the Building a Better Legal Profession project at Stanford Law School created an influential grading system for law firms based on their diversity and woman-friendly policies, among other issues. Law schools also have a big role to play in educating students about what to expect when they begin practicing law at a big firm and managing their expectations of the workload and lifestyle.
The report notes that technology, particular the omnipresent Blackberry, has revolutionized the way in which lawyers provide services to clients, and have increased the number of hours that attorneys are expected to be available each day (some say, to 24), while decreasing the response time. Anyone who has ever slept with his or her Blackberry under their pillow, only to wake up to that dreaded buzzing against their ear, and then furiously start thumbing away at the keyboard in the dark, with only the wan little LED screen light to guide them will be able to relate to this phenomenon.
To address this, the committee recommends that firms set some guidelines about the use of technology, and particularly about when it is ad is not appropriate to contact associates for work. They are hoping that these recommendations will help to reduce associate stress levels related to long work hours and the feeling of constantly being “on-call.”
Hopefully, these recommendations, in conjunction with the many others in the detailed report, will stimulate honest conversation at all levels within the legal profession and will provide a good starting point for developing policies to help attorneys lead more balanced lives in the law.