Your Time Or Your Money

ABA Journal, Law Beat
February, 2001
Byline Terry Carter

...Many firms declared outright that if they were going to pay top dollar, it would now take, say 1,950 billable hours to get it. On its face, this fed into the already vicious circle of ever-worked lawyers who measure success and each other by just how overworked they can be. But the new focus that big money has put on long hours might also be a tipping point for long-running quality-of-life programs. At the very least, the issue will surely quicken as the watershed pay spike of year 2000 runs head on into new energy and strategies calling for a more human face on the legal profession.

"I had young associates coming in and telling me they'd rather have the time than the money," says Ellen Ostrow, a psychologist who has expanded her Washington, D.C.-area practice to include career coaching for professionals. "But they were telling the wrong person. The managing partners need to hear this."