Part-time options at big law firms

The Project for Attorney Retention at Hastings has surveyed dozens of large law firms to determine whether they offer part-time schedules for attorneys, and whether attorneys who work part time also receive the pluses of firm work, including benefits, eligibility for partnership, ability to work on pro bono cases, etc. Check out the results -- and look up your firm and your friends' firms -- at http://www.pardc.org/TheScoop/

Thanks to Cynthia Calvert of the Project for Attorney Retention for bringing this to my attention. PAR is a project of the Center for WorkLife Law at Hastings, and the fact that they have such a center just makes me want to go there (but do THEY have a remote learning room? huh?). PAR doesn't call it part-time work, by the way: they call it "balanced hours," a term I hadn't heard before. The busy Hastings folks have done a lot of studies about finding ways to make law a more doable profession for those who can't or won't work inhumane hours. There's a lot of information on their site. Here are some of the tidbits I enjoyed:
* Tips for how to work part-time: http://www.pardc.org/LawFirm/tips_for_going_part-time.shtml
* Stories from attorneys who have worked part time: http://www.pardc.org/LawFirm/real_life.shtml
* Links to a zillion work/life resources: http://www.pardc.org/Resources/

Work-family issues featured at WWL CLE

Washington Women Lawyers' annual leadership symposium and CLE features a lunch speaker who is a nationally known expert in work-life issues. WWL says Professor Joan C. Williams of UC Hastings is "a prize-winning author and nationally recognized expert on work/family issues. Professor Williams founded and directs the Center for WorkLife Law and the Project for Attorney Retention. According to a recent New York Times article, she enjoys 'something approaching rock-star status' among lawyers and scholars who work on legal issues relating to employees with family responsibilities." (See links to blogs for both those projects at left on palsblog.)
Hastings is scheduled to talk about something called "balanced hours," which seems to involve putting more value on non-billable hours, though I can't exactly tell.
Hastings will speak at lunch on Sept. 28 at the Bell Harbor Conference Center, which is at Pier 66 in downtown Seattle. Admission to the lunch is $50 for non-members. There are other sessions during the day that sound interesting -- price for the full day is $75 for students.
For more information and registration forms, check http://www.wwl.org/index.php?/weblog/more/2007_leadership_symposium_and_annual_dinner/ and click on the forms. If you want to try to contact WWL to ask if you can volunteer to help (and get out of the $75 cost), links to WWL leaders are on that site.

Tips for 1Ls

This year's 1Ls start the week of Sept. 10 with a two-week orientation -- yes that's not a typo. In past years we've put together a sheet of advice tips from 2Ls and 3Ls to incoming 1Ls. Let's do it again, but this time in the comments here on the blog. 2Ls and 3Ls, please add a comment here with your best tips for the incoming 1Ls. 1Ls, if you have any questions, please drop them here as a comment.
Here's a link to the tip sheet from two years ago: http://students.washington.edu/lawpals/advice.shtml
My tips:
* Chop your books. Take them to a copy place on the Ave, have the bindings cut off and holes drilled, and then you only need to shlep around the pages you're reading that week.
* Share notes. If you notice someone's missing a class, send them notes. You've got kids; you're gonna miss class eventually. It helps if you can foster a cooperative atmosphere.

Fall events

Hey 1Ls! Come meet your fellow student-parents (and prospective student-parents) at some upcoming events. A lot of us have found that the key to having a happy first year is having classmates who are student/parents to talk to, get advice from, and commiserate with. So here are some opportunities to meet those other student-parents.

1L Family Picnic: Sept. 9, Ravenna Park near the U-District (more details later). The goal of this picnic is for 1Ls to get to know their classmates who have kids or are thinking of having kids. It's a nice complement to all the beer-oriented get-togethers going on this time of year. 2Ls and 3Ls, please come and share advice and show off how much your kids have grown.
--> please add a comment if you're planning to come, and watch for further updates regarding the time, and a link to a map with directions.

Orientation: 2Ls and 3Ls, let me know if you're going to be on campus Sept. 19 and could staff the PALS table for the organizations fair, 3-5 p.m.

Fall Festival: Thursday, Oct. 25. That's right, a Thursday. Heh heh.

posting options

I hear that it can be a pain to post on a blogger blog because it asks you to join up. You don't have to do that here -- I've enabled anonymous commenting. So go ahead and comment anonymously. Do us a favor and identify yourself (Louis) in the text of the post, if you feel like it(Louis).