A Mother's Ambitions

(This article was suggested by Angel Zimmerman, a WIL Committee member and JRCLS Kansas City Chapter Chair elect.)

I read this article recently and thought you might enjoy it as much as I did. It was written by Yael Chatov Schonbrun, a psychologist and assistant professor of psychology and human behavior at Brown University.  She entitled it "A Mother's Ambitions".

It hits home on numerous fronts.  I know I have felt so many of the things she expressed. I'll give you a few excerpts:

I felt like a constant disappointment. I felt the ever present pressure of needing to be writing a new grant or paper, needing to keep up on the literature. And I hated knowing that my mentors and colleagues were not terribly impressed with me anymore.

Spending more time with my child wasn’t my only consideration in what to do with my career. There was also my identity (who was I, if not a clinical psychologist and researcher and a generally ambitious person?), my sanity (could I really be home with a baby every day?), and the practical matter of my family’s finances (my income was needed to maintain our lifestyle). So finally, after months of agonizing, I made a decision: to back down, but not bail out.

[M]y productivity within each role is limited. My kids are probably the most satisfied — they enjoy our days home together, and they also love going to day care with their friends. But my patients get frustrated with my limited availability, and my colleagues at the university sometimes seem baffled by my desire to stay in academia in a way that is not particularly ambitious or impressive.

The real problem, however, is me. I certainly wish that I didn’t still feel like a postdoctoral fellow, salary-wise, after the ridiculous number of years of school I’ve completed, and I wish that my house and lifestyle weren’t so much smaller and simpler than those of my close friends who stayed on competitive career tracks. More painful, though, is sitting in on a research meeting, listening to my colleagues bounce around new project ideas and talk about complex data analytics or new methods of biological verification of substance use that can be incorporated into grant applications. Where I used to feel like a member of the group, and a leader on some projects, I now feel a half step behind.

[A]mbition makes our world move forward. But could it be possible that greatness can also mean finding ways to increase the amount of happiness in the world, even if that work happens on a tiny stage that can be seen and applauded by few, except perhaps by a pudgy 1-year-old and a chatty 4-year-old?

If you'd like to read the entire article, which I hope you will, you can find it at A Mother's Ambition.

Overflow Legal Network: A Company that Creates an Alternative to Firm Life

(Written by Desiree Nordstrom, a WIL Committee member.)

My business partner and I recently started a company, Overflow Legal Network LLC. OLN is a group of qualified freelance attorneys providing contractual legal support to law firms nationwide. I came across this business model a few years back, just after having my baby girl. At the time, I was trying to figure out how to do it all: how to have a career, be a great mommy, be a good wife and everything in between.  As a new mother, I was overwhelmed, to say the least.  I finally settled on leaving full-time practice and scaling back to part-time freelance work.  

Having years of experience as a freelance attorney helps me see the value that being associated with a network of freelance attorneys can provide.  I would like to detail those benefits below. 

Joining Overflow Legal Network’s group of freelance attorneys enables you to have a flexible schedule, work from any location at any hour of the day, set your own hourly rate, and bill out on an hourly basis. As an OLN freelance attorney, you have the autonomy to accept or deny work on a project-by-project basis. Having the final say gives you power over your schedule.  

Another benefit is OLN does the networking for you.  One thing I struggle with while freelancing is finding the time to get out and meet potential new business. But for attorneys associated with OLN’s network, making contacts in an effort to get more work is not a pressure. OLN does the marketing and networking for you. This allows you to focus on the reasons you needed to take time away from full-time practice in the first place.  

Overflow Legal Network provides a wonderful opportunity for freelance attorneys and we are currently recruiting to expand our network.  If you think freelance legal work is right for you, please feel free to visit our site and contact us.  

If you are a firm that seeks assistance in completing the work product you need, feel free to contact us as well.  We are here to answer your questions.  Find us at: overflowlegalnetwork.com.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks On Women in the Law

(Written by Nan Barker, the WIL Committee chair, who is responsible for the blog focus groups "on hiatus" and "using your law degree in your community and family".)

In a recent address, Unfolding in Time, which reviewed the founding and mission of the law school at BYU, Elder Dallin H. Oaks, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, made several statements I found to be very interesting and informative. I thought a couple of them might be of particular interest to people who read this blog.

When referring to women attending law school he said,

I am persuaded that law is a very appropriate study for women, marrried or single... Among other characteristics, law is a professsion that can be practiced from home and on a part-time basis. That surely is not true of many occupations women might choose or be compelled to pursue for support in the world in which we live.

He also mentioned the value and versatility a law degree provides. In a comment which surely applies to all law school graduates who adhere to Gospel standards, he said,

[W]hether in the legal profession or elsewhere, [law school graduates] are using their law degrees and the critical and analytical skills they honed in law school in a multitude of ways that make us proud of their impact on the lives of their clients and families and on the legal and moral environment of their communities and in their areas of influence.

If you're interested in reading the entire article by Elder Oaks, it can be found in the Spring 2013 Clark Memorandum ( http://www.jrcls.org/publications/clark_memo/sections/s13/CMS13_Oaks.pdf).

(One of the goals of this blog is to address seven different focus groups:  full time practice; part time practice; on hiatus; practicing with children at home; students; using your law degree in your community and family; and, singles.  If you have any suggestions about topics you would like to see addressed in these areas, please let us know through the Comment section below.)

How to Return to the Practice of Law

I have been asked to write an article about how to return to the practice of law.  The problem I have in responding to that request is that I left, but have not returned to, the practice.  Many of you have left and returned. You know the steps, have probably experienced a few of the pitfalls, while (hopefully) having seen the upsides associated with that return.

Could you lend a hand and please share your advice, suggestions, and words of wisdom or warning?

Thanks!

Amberly gave us some suggestions. Here is her advice:

I worked full time at the attorney general's office for several years, but then stayed home to care for my little boys for the next six years. I recently returned to full-time work and have a few ideas of things that were helpful to me:

1) Continuing to work or volunteer in your practice or interest area. After my sons were born I taught classes at the local university, did contract legal work, gave legal help to friends, family, and church members, and volunteered for different legal causes I felt passionate about. It kept me engaged in the legal world, allowed me to make further professional contacts, and let me keep my resume active.

2) Maintain your legal contacts. It was important that I continued to touch base with all the wonderful people that I knew through law school and professionally. They were able to act as references for jobs and the bar exam application even though I hadn't been working full time.

3) Have confidence in what you did during the time you were not practicing law full-time. I let my current employer know that I had been balancing caring for my children full-time with working on a contract basis and volunteering in my community. When I saw that they considered this an asset and not a deficit, I knew that this would be a good work environment for me. It is has been an engaging and flexible place to work, and I feel lucky to have found such a job.

Good luck to anyone who is making this transition! 

Thank you so much, Amberly.  If anyone else has some suggestions, we would appreciate you sharing them.

Using Your Law Degree in Your Community and Family: Gifts of a Law Degree

At a WIL recruitment lunch for female students, held on March 12, 2012, Mehrsa Baradaran gave an address entitled, "Education Multipliers".

Mehrsa researches and writes on banking regulation and administrative law.  She taught classes in banking regulation, property, secured transactions and administrative law at BYU Law School from 2009-2011.

She has a wonderful story to tell about her grandmother, who was born and raised in Iran, and the impact this grandmother's thirst for knowledge had upon the generations that followed.  I encourage you to read her entire address which can be found in the Fall 2012 Clark Memorandum or online at www.jrcls.org/publications/clark_memo/.

Toward the end of her remarks Mehrsa makes the following statement, "I will tell you that you will never regret your education".  She then goes on to pose this question: why law?   Her remarkable answer and insights were these:

My first year of law school was the most mind-expanding time of my life. Studying the law teaches you how to think critically, analyze problems, and articulate your viewpoints. Learning law is really a chance to peek at the wizard behind the curtain. It demystifies what is so elusive to so much of the world. It puts you in a position of power—true power—to lift burdens. 

No matter what you do with your life, the skills you learn in law school will help you. A law degree is the most flexible advanced degree. I have friends with law degrees who work in government, business, and law firms. Some do public service work and others stay home with their children and use their law degree to teach their children about the world. 

If you are trained well and are good at what you do, you can do a variety of meaningful part-time and contract work without working full-time. And even in those seasons of life in which you are not working at all, you can still be useful to family, friends, and your community by participating on boards, giving advice, and lending a hand to the disadvantaged or marginalized...

When you go to law school you not only learn during those three years, but those three years lay the groundwork for learning for the rest of your life...What a blessing you and I have to learn and be educated. I hope that as women we seek those opportunities, show gratitude for them, and become education multipliers. 

Thank you, Mehrsa.


(One of the goals of this bog is to address seven different focus groups:  full time practice; part time practice; on hiatus; practicing with children at home; students; using your law degree in your community and family; and, singles.  If you have any suggestions about topics you would like to see addressed in these areas, please let us know through the Comment section below.)

WIL Presents Mother-Daughter Legal Duos

On Wednesday, October 3, 2012, the evening before the JRCLS Leadership Conference begins, the Women in the Law Committee will host "Dynamic Duos: Mothers & Daughters in the Law" on the Brigham Young University campus. The panel will feature a number of mother and daughter lawyers and law students addressing topics such as what it is like to be a law student, which law school is best for you, how to balance family and work, and using your legal skills in other areas. The program will be held in the BYU Wilkinson Center, Room 3280, and will run from 7:00-8:30pm. All are invited to attend, including any undergraduate students interested in attending law school. Attorneys attending the Leadership Conference are encouraged to attend and mingle with students after the program. Law students are also welcome to come join in the dialogue.

Why Women in the Law?

Is WIL Anachronistic? Is WIL "Affirmative Action"? What is WIL?

International JRCLS WIL vice-chair Nan Barker offers her perspective.

Recently I had a discussion with someone who wondered if having Women in Law (WIL) sections within JRCLS chapters was worth the effort. Without hesitation I responded, “YES!”

Why were my feelings so strong? It’s a simple answer, actually. It’s because WIL has changed my life. I know that sounds dramatic, but it’s true. WIL has helped and strengthened me and made me feel good about the decisions I’ve made.

When we decided to start a WIL section in Phoenix we came up with the following goals: provide opportunities as far as support, camaraderie, and opening our eyes to various paths to be taken; be part of a group that shares many things in common; help women opt back into the practice if they so desire; receive strength and support in overcoming obstacles which are unique to women; and build a sense of unity and community.

We also decided at that meeting that we wanted to include "all women trained in the law to whom faith matters" that lived in Arizona. That phrase, "women trained in the law to whom faith matters" is intended to include women of any religious faith that have been to law school. In other words, legally trained women of faith that were (1) practicing law full time, (2) practicing law part time, (3) not practicing law with an intention to re-enter the practice, and (4) those not practicing law and with no intention of ever returning to the practice.

We realized the interests and needs of those various groups of women were diverse. However, we also realized that those various groups had insights and dimensions that would benefit us all.

We wanted to create a place where "all women trained in the law to whom faith matters" can feel accepted, supported, safe, and not judged. As women trained in the law, we so often believe others are judging us for the decisions we’ve made or are making. If we decide not to work we feel like those women working think we’ve wasted our training. If we decide to work we feel like women who have decided not to work are judging us for being away from home. I think women, particularly LDS women, are always feeling like they are being judged for their decisions.

WIL has provided a place for me not to feel that judgment. I have been accepted simply as a woman trained in the law to whom faith matters. My choices have been respected even though they may be different from others. I have felt and continue to feel safe in WIL. That is rare. I am truly grateful for it.

The following quote by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin has been our mantra in the Phoenix WIL section:

“[Some] feel they don’t belong. Perhaps because they are different. . . . They may look, act, think, and speak differently than those around them and that sometimes causes them to assume they don’t fit in. They conclude that they are not needed.

“Tied to this misconception is the erroneous belief that all should look, talk, and be alike. The Lord did not people the earth with a vibrant orchestra of personalities only to value the piccolos of the world. Every instrument is precious and adds to the complex beauty of the symphony. All of Heavenly Father’s children are different in some degree, yet each has his own beautiful sound that adds depth and richness to the whole.”

WIL recognizes that each of us “has [our] own beautiful sound that adds depth and richness to the whole.”

Are WIL sections worth the effort? Once again I say YES. I know what WIL has done for me. I hope this organization will do the same for each one of you.

Balanced Hours Policy: A Solution to the Part-Time Dilemma

What is a Balanced Hour Policy ("BHP")? "Prominent, successful law firms have discovered that the new operating paradigm of balanced hours creates satisfied clients, attracts new business, and draws the best recruits like a magnet." (fn.1) A BHP allows law firm attorneys to choose a reduced work schedule without the traditional stigma of being a "part-time" lawyer. Law firms that adopt BHPs create an environment in which any attorney at the firm may elect to reduce his or her workload and receive proportionately reduced pay, benefits, and shareholder track tenure.

For example, an attorney who makes $100,000 per year at a firm with a six-year shareholder track may elect to work a 75% schedule from the outset, thus receiving $75,000, 3/4 of paid benefits, and a 3/4 shareholder status at six years or full shareholder status at eight years.

Law firms create BHPs using two fundamental principles: proportionality and flexibility. (fn.2) BHPs "differ from traditional part-time programs in a number of ways." (fn.3) First, a firm's business needs drive the BHP; an individual attorney's needs do not. (fn.4) Those business needs are: (1) increasing attorney retention, (2) reducing costs associated with attrition, and (3) improving client satisfaction and retention. (fn.5) Second, BHPs disavow the concept that an attorney's worth is based on the hours s/he spends at the office. (fn.6) Third, BHPs do not carry the stigma or schedule creep attached to traditional part-time policies. (fn.7) Lawyers receive proportionate pay, benefits, and shareholder track tenure. (fn.8) Law firms using BHPs support them for business reasons, making BHP schedules available to all attorneys so there is no stigmatizing or marginalizing of a few. (fn.9)

Law firms with BHPs also use a Balanced Hours Coordinator to ensure the balanced hours attorneys continue to receive their fair share of meaningful assignments, client interaction, and legal training without increasing their hours, except during a true emergency, after which the firm grants compensation time. (fn.10) Finally, BHP-using law firms create a firm-wide atmosphere of support for their balanced-hour attorneys and hold each section leader accountable for his or her BHP implementation results via section leader bonuses. (fn.11)

____________
1. Joan C. Williams & Cynthia Thomas Calvert, Solving the Part-Time Puzzle: The Law Firm's Guide to Balanced Hours, 11 (NALP 2004); see also id. at 15 (listing prominent law firms as of 2004 who had implemented "non-stigmatized reduced-hours programs" - Alston Bird LLP, Arnold & Porter LLP, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, Debevoise & Plimpton, Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky LLP, Goodwin Procter LLP, Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe LLP, Morrison & Foerster LLP, Pillsbury Winthrop LLP, Piper Rudnick LLP, Shearman & Sterling, and Vinson & Elkins LLP).
2. Williams & Calvert, supra note 1, at 71-72.
3. Id. at 37.
4. Id.
5. Sheila Wellington, Women in Law: Making the Case, 88 Women Law. J. 2, 13 (2003).
6. William & Calvert, supra note 1, at 37.
7. Id. at 38.
8. Id.
9. Id.
10. Id.
11. Id. at 112-13.

--Tiffany Smith participates in the Balanced Hours Policy at Kirton & McConkie in Salt Lake City, UT. She balances work with her responsibilities as a wife, a mother of three, and a member of the international JRCLS WIL Committee.

Women Lawyers of Utah Releases Study on Retaining and Advancing Women Attorneys

Women Lawyers of Utah ("WLU") has released "The Utah Report," addressing why Utah law firms seem to have trouble retaining and advancing women attorneys. The 4-year study asked two questions: (1) Do Utah law firms face greater challenges retaining and promoting female attorneys than male attorneys? (2) If so, what concrete, unbiased actions can Utah law firms and Utah attorneys take to meet these challenges? The Initiative answered the first question with a Yes. The answer to the second question involved looking at why. Not all female attorney departures are due solely to childbearing and family responsibilities. Some gender bias still exists, even when all other factors are equal. For more information about the Initiative and Report, visit WLU's website: http://utahwomenlawyers.org/initiative-on-the-advancement-and-retention-of-women/