I Don't Want No Freakin' Flex Time

Working Mother Magazine has published the 50 Best Law Firms For Women. Well, I am not a mother, but I understand the dynamics involved having worked with my wife, who is a lawyer, as we try to raise 4 children in the best environment possible.  So, I think I am competent to comment on this.

Working Mother states, rightly, that women in particular are forced by Big Law to work nonstop to rack up billable hours or step off the partnership track to be home for the family.  As a result, 42% of women lawyers leave the profession at some point in their careers.

My problem is the solution.  It is to try and reform Big Law into offering flext-time programs, and offering mentoring.  You know, come in earlier, leave a little earlier, maybe a few less billable hours, and lactation rooms so women can express milk for their babies for later feedings by minimum wage workers is just not good enough.

For example, Andrews Kurth allows women attorneys to "opt to work reduced hours while staying on the partnership track" after two years.  Arnet Fox brags that it has three women among its top 5% of earners, but how does that apply?  Arnold & Porter allows paid maternity leave, but what does that do when the new mom has to return to work?

It is not silly.  It is just not a real solution to many or most women and families that want to have a life in which their children are a top priority.  The law firm picnic once a year is just not going to hack it.

Besides, it ignores that Big Law is just no longer necessary.  These firms are too big, too bulky, too expensive, too unresponsive, too industrial, and too bureaucratic and management heavy.  Attorneys are not working for themselves or for their benefit.  They are working for the three story atrium, marble floors, the mahogany walls, the large spiral staircase, the landlord, the utility companies, the partners and their expense accounts, the $1,000 suites, and the designer shoes.  Sure, the starting salary might be nice, but you have to work yourself to the bone to recover many more times what is being paid to the attorney.

I do not need flex time.  You do not need flex time.  Working moms do not need flex time.  It is almost an insult to think this is offered as a solution.  It is not a solution.

I want my time, on my terms, with my family, working when I can, and taking an active roll in the raising of my family.  I do not need the commute.  I do not need the expense.  I do not need the overhead.  And, as far as prestige, that is all in the heads of those that work for the Big Law firms.

Women lawyers leave the practice because they are trying too hard to compete where their priorities just do not work, and are not appreciated to the extent that Big Law is willing to revolutionize its practice to properly suit them.  If you are a woman attorney, you can accept this now and begin the transition home, as I have, my wife has, and so many others have, or you can stay there and fight for a little more flex time.  It is your choice, but I don't need no freakin' flex time.

Comments

[NICOLE BROUSSARD OLOFINLADE]

Chuck:

Thanks again for telling it like it is!

I had read the Working Mother article with interest prior to reading your post. I agree with you completely. During the summer between my first and second year of law school, I had realized that working for a traditional law firm was NOT for me. It was late one night, around 2 am when I was desperately looking for some "wiggle room" federal case law the named partner could use to argue before the federal court the following morning. (Desperate means CRYING, from fear, fatigue, and futility!)

Fear, because I didn't want to disappoint my idol and mentor. Futility, because all the case law went against our client, except for one lone case from another federal circuit. Fatigue, because I was working so much I hardly had time for a life outside of work.

Although the partner called me later to thank me and let me know that he had successfully used the research to get a ruling in client's favor. I knew I wanted to have a LIFE!

So, after law school, I worked away from the law for a while -- in the pharmaceutical industry. Guess what I discovered during my successful career as a sales rep then sales trainer. I was in the same boat ... NO LIFE , but instead of BIG LAW it was BIG Pharma. (By the way, Working Mother does a similar list for the best "companies" and BIG PHARMA is very well represented, but has the same problems that you note. Flex time is NOT the answer. (Not for everyone, anyway)

I re-focused my priorities, took a job with less responsibility and more pay! Took time to hold premature babies in neonatal intensive care units, go to church, work out, eat right. Shortly after, I met my husband began a family. Then I studied for, took and thankfully passed the bar. All while pregnent with child #2.

I thought was that if I were a solo, I could do it MY WAY. But the Husband and family are FIRST!

[Carolyn Elefant]

How did I miss this post? Well said - why should women lawyers beg for scraps when they can run the show?