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88 Women Law. J. 16 (2002-2003)
The Business Case for Effective Part-Time Programs

handle is hein.journals/wolj88 and id is 50 raw text is: The Business Case for Effective Part-Time Programs By James J. Sandman Managing Partner, Arnold & Porter E 1. 0) L. 0. E IM 0. I believe there is a strong business case for effective, successful part-time work programs in law firms. I start from the proposition that law firms compete in two markets: the market for talent and the market for clients. An accessible, workable part-time program, I believe, benefits a law firm in competing in both of those markets. In the market of talent, the benefits to a law firm of a good part-time program are - or should be -clear. For a number of years, surveys have doc- umented the unusually high levels of career dissatisfaction among lawyers. There are a number of reasons for this, but from everything I have seen-not only in surveys, but also in the scores of exit interviews I have conducted over seven years as a managing partner-the single biggest source of dissatisfaction in our profession is the inability to achieve work/life balance. And the cause of that inability is the hours lawyers are expected to work. To paraphrase James Carville, It's the hours, stupid! The inability to achieve work/life balance affects men as well as women. It is not, and increasingly will not be, only an issue for women. But its impact is manifested disproportionately among women, espe- cially among women with families. This is because the age at which most women are on the partnership track in laws firms so often coincides with their child-bearing and young child-rearing years. The inability to achieve work/life balance is a major cause of female attrition in law firms. It is a significant explanation for why there are not more women partners in law firms. Any law firm that can help its lawyers achieve real work/life balance is going to have a huge competitive advantage in the market for talent. Any firm that can help its lawyers achieve work/life balance will have talented people knocking the doors down to work there and will have much better success than the competition in retaining talented women through the partnership decision and beyond. I also believe that a successful part-time program is an advantage to a firm in com- peting in the market for clients. That proposition, though, runs headlong into the assumption of many law firm partners-and managing partners-that part-time lawyering is inconsistent with client service demands, inconsistent with the expectation of clients that their high- priced lawyers will be available 24/7. Whenever I have heard this issue-the issue of the alleged incompatibility of part-time work with good client service- discussed among lawyers, whether at managing partner roundtables or at bar conferences or elsewhere, I am always struck by the fact that there is not a single client in the room. Not one. I believe that the assumptions so many lawyers make about the negative impact of reduced hours on client service are uninformed and simply wrong. I would suggest that when this issue (or any client service issue is discussed) clients be 16 0 WOMEN LAWYERS JOURNAL - WINTER 2003

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