Trying to be a successful attorney AND to have a life is a formidable task. I've recently heard that the International Olympic Committee is planning a new event for the Winter Olympics: The Billable Hours Event.

The demographics of the work force in general, and of law firms in particular, have changed dramatically. Many of the most talented associates in today's big firms are young women who are either already parents or plan to become parents during the years they are working toward making partner. These attorneys face challenges that are different from those faced by their firms' predominantly male senior partners.

These days, it's not only women lawyers who must manage this balancing act. Increasing numbers of young male attorneys have wives with careers. These men must find ways of integrating active child-care responsibilities into their professional lives. Some younger men who are attorneys simply want to be more involved in the day-to-day of their children's lives. And with current billable hour requirements, working 80-hour work weeks simply does not allow for this.

The managing partners of many law firms have tried to be responsive to the needs of these young attorneys. A host of firms now have part-time policies and are doing their best to make these policies effective.

Attorney attrition is a significant problem for many firms and the Project for Attorney Retention is dedicated to helping firms develop effective reduced-hour policies so that firms can retain the gifted attorneys they've invested in so heavily.

The most powerful way to see the inextricable link between time and attorney retention is to examine the lives of attorneys working part time. In other words, in order to retain the best and the brightest, the legal profession needs to focus on the issue of how lawyers - faced with today's billable hour requirements - manage their time.

I am a business coach and a psychologist, not an attorney. I spend the bulk of my hours on the phone coaching women attorneys, and sometimes men, who are trying to be excellent lawyers, good parents, and to have a personal life.

Almost every attorney with whom I speak is calling because of the impact of current billable-hour demands on their lives. Many of them are talking about leaving their firms, some even talk about leaving law altogether.

The next few paragraphs will share some of the stories I hear as a professional coach. If you recognize yourself, read further - there are some ideas for you.

A FOURTH YEAR ASSOCIATE is working in a firm with about 80 attorneys. She is the mother of a none-month old baby and the wife of an accountant who's recently been made partner in his firm. Since both she and her husband agreed he has a very heavy workload, there was no question as to which of them would assume primary childcare responsibility.

Since returning to work after her maternity leave, she was feeling increased pressure from the partners to take on more work. In an effort to be helpful, one of the partners had asked her if she'd like to reduce her hours. But the firm had no explicit partnership track for part-time lawyers. She was afraid that reducing her hours would permanently eliminate any chance she had of becoming partner.

She felt absolutely trapped. Even when she worked full time, she was not able to meet the firm's expectations. But reducing her hours - so she could spend more time with her baby - meant venturing out onto a slippery slope - one she was unsure her career would survive.

A SEVEN YEAR ASSOCIATE was working in a firm with about 800 lawyers. The mother of two young children, she'd made a valiant attempt to be successful in her career while struggling to be involved in their lives.

There seemed to be little doubt that she would make partner. But she had reached the end of her rope just as she was about to grasp the golden ring. She'd been working a reduced-hour schedule for several years. Reduced hours meant she could leave in time to meet her children when they came home from school.

In order to get her work done, she had to go back to work after the children went to sleep. So for months she'd been working from 9 p.m. until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning, and then trying to be emotionally available to her children as she got them off to school. Often even after going to bed, she lay awake worrying about all the unfinished work.

But her exhaustion was far less a problem for her than her isolation at her firm. She felt like a pariah or a disabled person. Although her firm allowed part- time schedules, she felt they were regarded as a special accommodation to the family-challenged, for people ostensible not tough enough to do everything. She felt completely marginalized.

My experience has taught me that these women are not alone. Those of you facing these kinds of challenges may not realize that you are in excellent company. From my perspective, this isolation stems from the norms of law firm culture. In general, lawyers learn that they are expected to appear confident, strong and unemotional.

So, women lawyers trying to make part-time schedules work in large firms tend to be quite circumspect about any difficulties they experience. But this silence allows you to feel like the painful parts of your part- time experience are a personal problem - YOUR problem.

YOUNG WOMEN LAWYERS ARE COMMITTED TO THEIR FIRMS

If you look at the research on marriage and marriage therapy, you'll find that most couples don't come in for help until about six years after the problems begin.

Over the course of six years, commitment erodes. People move from disappointment to anger to detachment, and by the time they come for help, they're really looking for a way out.

I have noticed a similar time course among attorneys in their relationships with their firms. They begin with enthusiasm and commitment.

And when the firm responds by communicating that they value her, this union flourishes.

But many women lawyers feel that their firms do not respect or support the reality of their dual commitments to firm and family. The attorneys who contact me after a few years of part-time work without institutional support are no longer interested in my suggestions about how they can make this relationship work. They want out.

MOVING FROM PAIN TOWARD PROMISE

Women lawyers who have had positive experiences working part time all have some things in common:

• Their firms view part-time policies as beneficial to the organization as well as the lawyer and not just as a concession to the personal needs of one or two attorneys.
• They have a part-time coordinator or a supervisor or an alliance with a partner who champions their cause and supports their efforts to set boundaries around their hours and their workload.
• They feel valued and not stigmatized.
• These women also understand the bottom-line concerns of their managing partners and communicate their investment in finding win-win solutions.
• They are good at promoting themselves within their firms so that the value of retaining them is always obvious.
• They have worked out arrangements with their firms so that some of the hours they work are not billable hours. Instead, they can continue to attend meetings or participate in committees or in some way remain integrated in the life of the firm.
• In addition, these women work for firms that are willing to be flexible; if a shortened work day doesn't work, then they try an abbreviated work week. What counts is that the firm and the lawyer work together to find what works for both.
• These lawyers use electronic communication to its maximum effectiveness.
• Finally, they have sufficient quality child care to allow them to e flexible and responsive to client needs.

Recently, a woman attorney I've known for many years was made partner in her firm after eight years as an associate. As the mother of three, she'd always worked three days a week. When I called to congratulate her, she sounded giddy. She'd never expected to be made partner. She'd assumed that reducing to part-time automatically excluded her and was stunned and delighted when the partners presented her with the good news.

I'd had the privilege of working on a case with one of the partners, so I called him to congratulate him as well. He said, "She's an excellent attorney and she works very hard. She deserves this and our firm wants lawyers like her."

This is the promise of part time. Unfortunately, right now it's usually up to each lawyer to make it work on her own. Institutional changes would certainly help smooth the way, ease the struggle, and allow women attorneys to find more time to do the work they came to their firms to do. The Project for Attorney Retention will offer these institutional solutions.

---

THE PAR PROJECT

The Project for Attorney Retention (PAR) seeks to improve recruiting and retention of talented attorneys through the use of work schedules that allow attorneys to better balance the competing demands of their work and their lives outside the office. PAR aims to develop recommendations for reduced-hour schedules that are not punitive "mommy tracks." PAR advocates the development of schedules that allow proportional pay for proportional work with proportional opportunities for advancement.

PAR is directed by Joan Williams and Cynthia Thomas Calvert. Joan Williams is the Director of the Gender, Work and Family Project at the American University Law School, where she is Professor of Law. She is the author of "Unbending Gender: Why Work and Family Conflict and What To Do About It" (Oxford University Press, 1999). Cynthia Thomas Calvert has worked full-time, part-time and flex-time for a D.C. law firm and recently opened her own practice concentrating in employment law counseling.

Both PAR and Lawyers Life Coach would like to hear about your experiences working part-time in a law firm. You can fill out PAR's survey at their web site: http://pardc.org and send email to Dr. Ostrow at Ellen@lawyerslifecoach.com