New study probes challenges many professionals face juggling work and family demands
When lawyer Kirby Chown had her twins during her first year of practice with McCarthy Tétrault LLP in the early 1980s, there was no support available to help her balance the demands of family and work. More than 20 years later, women lawyers still face challenges when they become mothers.
“Our average maternity leave is about nine months, so women would step out of their practice, they would be at home and they would be disconnected from the firm and then they would have trouble reintegrating,” says Chown, now the Ontario regional managing partner of McCarthy Tétrault, which has 800 lawyers in offices across Canada, including Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, as well as in New York and London.
However, thanks to Chown and other women in leadership positions, the firm has instituted several programs to support lawyers with family demands. McCarthy Tétrault matches each woman going on maternity leave with a “buddy” — usually another woman who has been on maternity leave and has returned to work. The buddy helps the woman wind down her practice, stays in touch with her while she’s on leave and assists with reintegration.
“The fact that we now see women in positions of management ensures that issues like this get on the table and stay on the table,” says Chown.
Unfortunately, McCarthy Tétrault’s focus on improving work-life balance isn’t widespread in the legal field. A recent survey of 1,400 lawyers across Canada found that one in every two lawyers has difficulty managing the demands of work and personal life, compared to just one-quarter of Canadians in the non-legal field.
“This is problematic for law firms because the study shows a link between satisfaction with work-life balance and your desire to stay with a firm and your desire to recommend a firm as a place to work,” says Susan Black, president of Catalyst Canada, the Toronto-based research and advisory organization that conducted the survey. “It doesn’t make it easy to attract and retain people if you have serious work-life balance issues.”
This is particularly troubling for the legal industry because a study by Catalyst last March found that every time an associate leaves a law firm, it costs $315,000. However, the new study has broader implications since management can directly impact work-life balance, a key factor in retaining and recruiting employees in all industries. If the legal industry can figure out how to improve work-life balance, then the rest of the business community can also benefit, says Black.
Chown, whose firm was one of the survey’s 10 sponsors, says she wasn’t surprised that so many lawyers are having problems juggling their work and personal lives. “For lawyers working in transactional-based areas of law or on trials, something may come up that requires them to work particularly long hours to finish a deal or a trial,” she says. “That unpredictability added to already long hours are two significant factors (in work-life balance issues).”
More than 80 per cent of women associates say an environment that’s supportive of family and personal commitments is more important to them than money. Women constitute more than one-half of law students and if firms can’t provide a supportive environment, they’re at risk of losing what Chown calls “the best and the brightest.”
While the majority of women associates (75 per cent) and women partners (69 per cent) are dissatisfied with their work-life balance, men associates (66 per cent) and men partners (46 per cent) are also feeling the pressure. The higher percentage of men associates reporting difficulties compared to men partners illustrates a generational, rather than gender difference, says Chown.
“As young men are increasingly interested in participating in family life, they too report the same anxiety,” she says. “In the law firm model, which in the old days was predominately male, most male lawyers had stay-at-home spouses.”
The study found that the greater a lawyer’s level of satisfaction with a firm’s informal flexibility, the greater her satisfaction with her ability to manage work and personal or family responsibilities. However, to really improve work-life balance at a firm, the male partners, who traditionally haven’t had a problem with this issue, need to support and advocate flexibility at work.
Flexible work arrangements include working part time, telecommuting, job-sharing and working condensed weeks. Most importantly, flexible work arrangements give employees flexibility around their career paths and the “ability to step off or ramp down when your personal life is in high gear and then to come back on, without the stigma, at a later stage when you can devote more time to it,” says Black.
“That’s a concept that a lot of organizations have trouble with. They think if you step off the track early on, you’re not committed and you’ll never be any good.”
The study also found that satisfaction with firms’ management and leadership leads to higher work-life balance satisfaction. A firm’s leaders need to strongly stand behind the commitment to work-life balance and lead by example, says Black. This includes pushing back on unreasonable deadlines, placing more value on the outcome rather than on the amount of time spent working and having personal lives of their own. “This models to other people that it’s okay to have a life outside of work,” she says. “Leaders who do this themselves can have a large impact.”
“Our average maternity leave is about nine months, so women would step out of their practice, they would be at home and they would be disconnected from the firm and then they would have trouble reintegrating,” says Chown, now the Ontario regional managing partner of McCarthy Tétrault, which has 800 lawyers in offices across Canada, including Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, as well as in New York and London.
However, thanks to Chown and other women in leadership positions, the firm has instituted several programs to support lawyers with family demands. McCarthy Tétrault matches each woman going on maternity leave with a “buddy” — usually another woman who has been on maternity leave and has returned to work. The buddy helps the woman wind down her practice, stays in touch with her while she’s on leave and assists with reintegration.
“The fact that we now see women in positions of management ensures that issues like this get on the table and stay on the table,” says Chown.
Unfortunately, McCarthy Tétrault’s focus on improving work-life balance isn’t widespread in the legal field. A recent survey of 1,400 lawyers across Canada found that one in every two lawyers has difficulty managing the demands of work and personal life, compared to just one-quarter of Canadians in the non-legal field.
“This is problematic for law firms because the study shows a link between satisfaction with work-life balance and your desire to stay with a firm and your desire to recommend a firm as a place to work,” says Susan Black, president of Catalyst Canada, the Toronto-based research and advisory organization that conducted the survey. “It doesn’t make it easy to attract and retain people if you have serious work-life balance issues.”
This is particularly troubling for the legal industry because a study by Catalyst last March found that every time an associate leaves a law firm, it costs $315,000. However, the new study has broader implications since management can directly impact work-life balance, a key factor in retaining and recruiting employees in all industries. If the legal industry can figure out how to improve work-life balance, then the rest of the business community can also benefit, says Black.
Chown, whose firm was one of the survey’s 10 sponsors, says she wasn’t surprised that so many lawyers are having problems juggling their work and personal lives. “For lawyers working in transactional-based areas of law or on trials, something may come up that requires them to work particularly long hours to finish a deal or a trial,” she says. “That unpredictability added to already long hours are two significant factors (in work-life balance issues).”
More than 80 per cent of women associates say an environment that’s supportive of family and personal commitments is more important to them than money. Women constitute more than one-half of law students and if firms can’t provide a supportive environment, they’re at risk of losing what Chown calls “the best and the brightest.”
While the majority of women associates (75 per cent) and women partners (69 per cent) are dissatisfied with their work-life balance, men associates (66 per cent) and men partners (46 per cent) are also feeling the pressure. The higher percentage of men associates reporting difficulties compared to men partners illustrates a generational, rather than gender difference, says Chown.
“As young men are increasingly interested in participating in family life, they too report the same anxiety,” she says. “In the law firm model, which in the old days was predominately male, most male lawyers had stay-at-home spouses.”
The study found that the greater a lawyer’s level of satisfaction with a firm’s informal flexibility, the greater her satisfaction with her ability to manage work and personal or family responsibilities. However, to really improve work-life balance at a firm, the male partners, who traditionally haven’t had a problem with this issue, need to support and advocate flexibility at work.
Flexible work arrangements include working part time, telecommuting, job-sharing and working condensed weeks. Most importantly, flexible work arrangements give employees flexibility around their career paths and the “ability to step off or ramp down when your personal life is in high gear and then to come back on, without the stigma, at a later stage when you can devote more time to it,” says Black.
“That’s a concept that a lot of organizations have trouble with. They think if you step off the track early on, you’re not committed and you’ll never be any good.”
The study also found that satisfaction with firms’ management and leadership leads to higher work-life balance satisfaction. A firm’s leaders need to strongly stand behind the commitment to work-life balance and lead by example, says Black. This includes pushing back on unreasonable deadlines, placing more value on the outcome rather than on the amount of time spent working and having personal lives of their own. “This models to other people that it’s okay to have a life outside of work,” she says. “Leaders who do this themselves can have a large impact.”
