Trying to recruit and retain the most promising young lawyers, law firms are increasingly accommodating requests to work part time.
Part-time arrangements, which commonly have relegated women lawyers to the ”mommy track” with no hope of achieving partnership, may now merely delay partnership decisions.
Indeed, many lawyers who take advantage of part-time options are women who want to work limited hours while raising young children.
Others are associates who want to avoid the punishing hours that have been considered part of being on the partnership track at blue-chip law firms so that they can pursue other interests for a while.
Still other lawyers have decided that they do not aspire to partnership at all.
For them, recent options at some firms include staying as a staff lawyer or contract lawyer working limited hours for lower pay or serving as a free-lance lawyer through a temporary employment agency for firms needing short-term assistance-for example, on a single labor-intensive litigation or transaction.
”The fact is that working part time does not make you `mommy track` or less of a lawyer,” said Laura Richman, a partner at Mayer, Brown & Platt in Chicago. ”It benefits the client because it takes less of a toll than it does on someone doing a great many deals in the same month.”
Richman said that she doesn`t think a part-time lawyer does a better job than a full-time lawyer, but he or she doesn`t do a worse job either: ”The way I work is that I am in the office three days a week and am available by phone at home other days. Any deal I had would be completed in a professional manner. From the point of view of the client, my work would be indistinguishable from that of a full-time lawyer.”
Although no formal study has been made of how many lawyers made partner after working part time, Elaine C. Weiss, director of the American Bar Association`s Commission on Women in the Profession, said it is a ”trend that`s growing.”
Although firms have long accommodated extraordinary performers, said Lisa Hill Fenning, a member of the commission on women, concessions are now made more frequently.
”Ten years ago large firms did not have part-time options available to their lawyers generally,” said Fenning, who is a judge on the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles.
”Five years ago, they did have the options, but they were experimental, limited and usually off partnership track. Today I think there`s enough track record that being part time does not make you less a lawyer. It is becoming more acceptable to stay on partnership track.”
That notion was echoed in interviews with representatives of several top New York firms, although they said only a minority of current partners have part-time experience.
Of 98 partners at Davis, Polk & Wardwell, eight are women, and three of those women worked part-time as associates, said Henry King, managing partner. Two male partners also worked part time as associates, he said.
”More people are going part time,” King said, ”and there will be more situations where those people will come back to the firm full time and have partnership options.”
New York-based Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has seen in recent years a strong increase in associates who work part time, said Peter Mullen, the firm`s executive partner.
Mullen estimated that only a handful of associates worked part time for the firm five years ago, as against the 42 part-time associates the firm now employs. Still, no part-time associate has made partner there.
Debevoise & Plimpton in New York has offered part-time schedules since the late 1960s, and two of the firm`s four women partners took that option, said a spokeswoman, Debbie Brightman. The firm has 86 partners.
Still, the firm has recently seen such an increase in interest among its associates that it drafted a more explicit policy on part-time work, Brightman said.
”We`ve been more conscious about offering it and letting people know it`s an option,” she said.
Part-time lawyers may work a few days a week or a certain number of billable hours a year for a portion of full-time pay.
The firm may periodically review the lawyer`s pay and hours to maintain fair compensation, or it may permit a lawyer to take substantial time off after working long hours on a matter.
A lawyer counts each hour spent working for a client as a billable hour, which does not include time spent on personal, administrative or internal firm matters.
Generally, part-time lawyers receive full health benefits, sick leave and participation in a firm`s savings investment plans. Typically they receive full or pro-rated vacation time.
Some firms do not postpone partnership decisions for lawyers who work part time for a limited time, but others do.
Rhonda Yacker, a products liability litigator who works part time at Stroock, Stroock & Lavan in New York, is unsure what effect it will have on her chances of becoming a partner, and she estimates that she is being paid 80 percent of a normal salary for what sometimes amounts to full-time work.
Still, she says the trade is worthwhile.
”There are a lot of positives,” said Yacker, who has one child and is expecting a second.
”It`s allowed me to be with my 3-year-old, and it makes for a less harried life. And since there are seven or eight women on part time now, I think the firm sees it is beneficial financially. They pay fourth-fifths of salary for associates who sometimes bill more than full-time associates.”
Why would any associate continue putting in the 16-hour days that are considered ”full-time work” if he or she could scale back to part time and still be considered for partnership?
Some want the larger salary. Some want to be considered for partnership as quickly as possible.
And some, no doubt, still harbor the suspicion that they may be penalized if they do not dedicate their lives to their job.
Certainly the quest to make partner remains a competitive one at many firms, and associates are eager to gain any edge they can.
Eighty-two percent of the managing partners of law firms surveyed in 1988 by the National Law Journal said that no more than half of the first-year associates at their firms were eventually made partner.
Even after becoming a partner, it may be difficult for a lawyer to maintain a part-time schedule, Fenning said.
”I don`t think that`s going to become very common,” she said. ”It may be that one partner in a firm will work part time, but not the majority of people in a firm. The pressures are too extreme.”
Some firms continue to follow the traditional path.
Bill Wynne, a partner at White & Case, said the firm would consider part- time associates for partnership, but none of the 11 female partners out of 105 partners worked part time.
”They did it all and succeeded,” Wynne said. ”I don`t think we`ve faced the issue yet.”
Wynne said White & Case is ”addressing the issue as to whether we should formalize a part-time arrangement.”
