National Jurist - October 2008 - (Page 31) Manhattan Fr Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy E Epstein Becker & Green W Winston & Strawn Jo Jones Day M Morrison & Foerster D Davis Polk & Wardwell H Hughes Hubbard & Reed F Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe Kenyon & Kenyon Alston & Bird Shearman & Sterling Katten Muchin Rosenman Kirkland & Ellis King & Spalding Mcdermott Will & Emery Say goodbye to the old-fashioned way of law Deborah Epstein Henry seemingly has it all — three healthy sons, a successful career as a commercial litigator and now a widely recognized consulting service that helps law firms and businesses develop work-life practices. But it wasn’t always this way. About 10 years ago, Henry was like many other working mothers. She struggled with how to balance her desire for a family, work part time and stay on a partnership track at work. So she sent an email to three female lawyers in her firm and three others who were working part time. Her goal was to develop a brownbag lunch group for like-minded attorneys. They could sit, eat and talk about how they keep work and life in check. Within days, more than 150 responses to her first invitation flooded her email. As her mailing list grew, Henry started holding regular meetings to discuss flexible hours, reduced schedules and other work-life issues. “It was a sign that I had struck a nerve. I was obviously not alone,” Henry said. She founded Flex-Time Lawyers LLC in September 2002. Mostly women attended the meetings, so she began to tailor the content to them. Meeting topics included career advice, networking opportunities and other subjects related to the retention and promotion of women in the legal profession. By 2007, Henry was running chapters in New York and Philadelphia. So she hung up her litigator’s robe and began working as a consultant on a full-time basis. These days, Henry advises lawyers, law firms and corporations on how to maintain a work-life balance. Through Flex-Time Lawyers, Henry approached Working Mother magazine to create the 50 Best Law Firms for Women list. Now in its second year, the list is a guide for students, associates and partners on which firms are creating women-friendly policies to attract and retain top talent. Henry believes work-life balance is a gender-neutral subject. However, she is particularly Deborah Epstein sensitive to the needs of young Henry female attorneys — especially considering about half of all law school students are women. “This is much more of an issue for today’s law students from day one,” Henry said. “As Generation Y graduates, they are saying they don’t want to practice law the old-fashioned way. They want a life. They want that balance.” As a result, she recommends women look carefully at potential employers during the hiring process. That means looking on people’s desks for pictures of children, checking for utilization rates for part-time policies and asking for written work-life policies when considering a job offer. work out issues internally and externally. So if a person finds they are being worked too many hours or being pulled in multiple directions, Rosenstein said, their mentor can step in and help find a remedy. Kirkland & Ellis also helps its attorneys throughout the parenting journey. It starts with a generous leave policy, which gives caregivers the time they need to bond with their newborn or adopted child, said Jay P. Lefkowitz, one of the firm’s litigation partners and member of its management committee. Then there is the firm’s backup childcare, Lefkowitz said, which helps working parents ensure there is always someone available to care for their children if an emergency should arise. At WilmerHale, parental leave is popular among women and men. Men are eligible to take the newly expanded 18-week “primary caregiver leave” to stay at home with a young child. (If they are not the primary caregiver, they can take a 4-week leave). In the past two years, 47 male attorneys have taken parental leave, Pirozzolo said. Of those, 83 percent took the leave as a secondary caregiver and 17 percent took a primary caregiver leave. “Our leave and part-time policies have been very important to our efforts to recruit top talent and to retain and promote women into the partnership,” Pirozzolo said. “As more women in the firm successfully work with significant family responsibilities, they serve as role models, mentors and supporters of other women trying to do the same thing.” ■ THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA Columbus School of Law WASHINGTON, D.C. Master of Laws, LL.M., Degree Program Banking and Commercial Law • Communications Law Securities Law • Trusts and Estates Comparative and International Law • Jurisprudence For further information, visit our Web site: http://law.cua.edu/llm/ or contact the Office of Admissions at 202-319-5151. International applications due March 2, 2009 • Domestic applications due July 1, 2009 Master of Laws, LL.M., in American Law Catholic University also offers an LL.M. program in American law for international students with a master’s of law or equivalent degree. Students spend a summer and nine to 12 weeks of an academic year taking courses from CUA law professors at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, and a summer at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. This program offers an alternative to LL.M. programs requiring a year of residence in the United States. For information, visit http://www.wejman.pl/ October 2008 THE NATIONAL JURIST 31 http://www.flextimelawyers.com http://law.cua.edu/llm/ http://law.cua.edu/llm/ http://www.wejman.pl/ http://www.wejman.pl/
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