It’s 3:30 p.m., and Baker Botts partner Robert Murray, Jr., is not in his New York office. He’s on his way to coach his kids’ little league team. “I worked like a dog as an associate, and continued to put in those hours as a partner,” he says, “but I realized that I need to spend time with my kids.” Not only don’t his clients mind, says Murray, but they’ll call “to remind me to go home,” because some have similar schedules.
Murray is typical of a growing number of lawyers for whom time in the office is no longer de rigueur. BlackBerrys, laptops, and other gizmos have liberated them, allowing more control over how they blend their personal and professional lives. “Face time is a dying phenomenon,” says Joshua Levy, a partner at Ropes & Gray. “When I was a young associate [in the early nineties], I had to be there for document reviews; now everything is online.” His firm just revamped its policies to allow associates greater flexibility, he says, “because we had talented people that left.”
