It’s either a radical idea whose time has come or a pipe dream fueled by the P.R. department. I’m talking about part-time work in Big Law. The concept has been kicking around for a couple of decades, though it’s only in recent years that it has become formalized as part of the “family-friendly” package. (Part-timers typically commit to working a percentage of the billable hour requirement.) Though no one would call it a “women’s thing,” everyone knows lawyer-moms dominate the part-time pool. Family-friendliness has a happy ring to it, but are part-time options really helping women’s careers?
“There are firms that have good programs on the books, but if I look at my friends who have gone part-time, I haven’t seen any who became partners,” one law firm consultant told me.
