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1. Posted by Brad - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 7 hours, 52 minutes ago

   Such a joke. I get sick of these puff pieces about how good we are….  If only my firm, who is on the list, actually care about all working mothers who work for them

2. Posted by HT - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 5 hours, 24 minutes ago

   why should women get special treatment? wtf…deal with it

3. Posted by jk - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 5 hours, 24 minutes ago

   The actual title should be the 50 best law firms for women among the American top 100.

4. Posted by Al DeMeola - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 5 hours, 20 minutes ago

   This is a crock—women friendly—what about men-friiendly?  We have to work harder so that the firm can carry all these women?  Give me a break!

5. Posted by thinking - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 4 hours, 56 minutes ago

   Well, I guess we all know that HT and Al have little understanding of how much women must carry at home.  When they eventually get married I guess they won’t be expecting their wives to spend time that it takes to maintain a decent household, much less raise children.

   Perhaps Al and HT, you believe that women should stay at home?  Perhaps you believe that half of today’s work force should forgo having families or should place their offspring in permanent daycare once maternity leave ends at 12 weeks?  Or is maternity leave too much “special treatment”?  Maybe female lawyers should schedule a c-section over lunch break and then return to their next meeting . . .

6. Posted by Sarah - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 4 hours, 50 minutes ago

   Al DeMeola, there is no evidence that you have to work harder to carry women; rather, women have to work harder to care for their families and manage their work. Outdated work routines can be updated to accommodate modern schedules.  Men already have urinals. What more do you want?  The right to belch?

7. Posted by SS - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 4 hours, 45 minutes ago

   “men-friendly” - give ME a break.  This entire world is “men-friendly”.  And I’m sure you wouldn’t complain if you were lucky enough to marry an attorney (like myself) since you could enjoy the nice dual income WHILE your wife still takes care of the house and the children… My view is that until men realize how much work goes into trying to be a successful professional while raising a successful family, they should shut up and “deal with it”

8. Posted by DR - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 4 hours, 23 minutes ago

   Those saying that women shouldn’t get special treatment are missing the point.  Unfortunately in our society, childrearing and elder care still fall almost exclusively on women…whether they work or not.  Even this article about the Top 50 Law Firms for Women is counterproductive, because it assumes that women are still the only caregivers.  We need to start thinking in terms of work/life balance for not only moms AND dads, but others who need to achieve balance as well.  This shouldn’t be a man vs. woman thing…it should be about all of working to achieve not only a healthy and productive work environment…but healthy and productive individuals.

9. Posted by Sarah - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 4 hours, 15 minutes ago

   DR, that sounds really good, but the reality is that when the women’s movement and the sexual revolution came about, no one thought about what would happen to the children. People really should place their priorities higher than themselves and income. It is a tragedy that our American society has seen the levels of divorce, premarital sex at younger ages, abortion and 3rd party child raising. Add in the decline in public education and we all have a real problem. Making men and women the same isn’t the answer. Men and women living their lives like responsible adults with an eye to the future of the society is.

10. Posted by DR - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 4 hours, 7 minutes ago

    I didn’t say that women and men should be the same…perhaps I was unclear.  More or less, I said that we should focus on the concept of “Family” rather than just issues relating to one parent.  I’m sorry, but I don’t buy the concept that a mother has more rights to be with her child than the father.  My father was a medical professional when I was growing up - but he was always around and participated in our lives.  I don’t believe that parenting is a woman-only job.  My husband and I handle parenting as equal partners.  Too much emphasis is put on mothering in our society…at the expense of “FAMILY”.  In my opinion, if more people did this perhaps the divorce rate would be lower.  I’m tired of hearing about how feminism destroyed the family.  That’s a cope-out.  Individual people destroy their own lives.

11. Posted by mrs jd - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 4 hours, 1 minute ago

    Networking groups, mentoring and management training programs are all bs. The firms simply have to let go of “face time” to permit greater flexibility for child-rearing. And the billable hours requirements are simply impossible to fulfill if you plan on being a mother that actually sees her kids. I switched to a small firm because I quickly realized after 4 years with a big firm that you simply can’t “have it all.“

12. Posted by sarah - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 3 hours, 44 minutes ago

    DR, MRS. JD has the right idea. 

    I don’t know what feminism is anymore. But radical feminism and all it carries with it has warped society.. Sorry if you don’t like hearing it. Also, there can’t be too much emphasis on mothering in our society. I feel you have fallen victim to the last 30 years of feminist bilge when the whole movement should have been limited to workplace rights, not the emasculation of men to the point where men are angry with women who want to raise children and express sentiments like Al did above. I understand Al and why he’s mad, even though I don’t think I would like to be around him too much.

13. Posted by DR - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 3 hours, 27 minutes ago

    Sarah:  we are not going to come to an understanding because you keep failing to see the point that I am trying to make.  Instead, you focus on the same rhetoric that I could hear if I turned on the radio and listened to James Dobson and his ilk.  I’m sorry, but if you’re a lawyer (which I assume you are), you are a product of the feminist movement yourself.  It was not so long ago that women were discouraged from advancing in professions.  I don’t sit around thinking about feminism or radical feminism for that matter, because I’ve got too much to do and it is my responsibility to move forward in taking care of my own family and not focus on who and what is to blame for society’s problems.  It is easy to say who is to blame…it is not so easy to make things better.  I agree with Mrs. JD too…because most big firms are not compatible with work/life balance.  You seem eager to point out the fallacy of my opinion…but nothing you have said so far relates to anything that I have said.  That being said, I need to get some work done.

14. Posted by NJ - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 3 hours, 1 minute ago

    sarah: “radical feminism and all it carries with it has warped society” ...and you’re just coming to this realization now?  yet you say there “can’t be too much emphasis on mothering in society”?  ...like all women these days, you want your cake AND to eat it, too.  you want all the perks and privileges of womanhood, to be treated like a lady, to have plenty of time to raise families and giggle at tea parties, yet at the same time to have unlimited opportunity and no glass ceilings and to be able to wield unlimited power at the expense of all who may dare to cross your path.  what gives?

15. Posted by sarah - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 2 hours, 46 minutes ago

    O.K., NJ, I have just fended off DR who drove away in her Volvo on her way to the Unitarian service still thinking that I need to come to an understanding with her and that I must tie all my successes to the feminist movement. She does seem to have a conservative bias - i,.e. the James Dobson dig.  Now you…

    
    The concept of a strong emphasis on mothering and that radical feminism and all it carries with it has warped society are not inconsistent. You assume that I want it all (cake reference), but I didn’t say that.

    I do want to be treated like a lady because I am one, but all those other things are choices. Personally, I don’t think people can have it all - the soup gets too thin.

    Again, MRS. JD has it right, or closer than DR whose child is probably confused when she and her husband share changing the diaper. He wraps, she tapes.

    Don’t you like giggling at tea parties? I know you do….. I like the little cheese sandwiches….

    As far as the power wielding, my god, are you ok?  People who cross my path usually say hi, then keep going.

16. Posted by Richard Wadsworth - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 2 hours, 25 minutes ago

    Men should not make fools of the women.  Women who want to work hard, will, and those who don’t wont.  But to choose a firm based on being woman friendly should be relevant only if the worman plans on starting a family soon, in which case both parties should be aware of it.  I’ve seen women come in saying they want to work forever, and 6 months later go off for a 2 year extended maternity leave (on the firm’s dime).  That is misleading to the firm, but we grin and bear it if we want to be known as woman friendly.  On the other hand, we have men that like to skate by by relying on their contacts and the fact they can drive business.  They are no better than the women who mislead.  I say work if you want to work and play if you want to play, but don’t play at work.  That’s how I’ve managed to run my business for the last 30 years.

17. Posted by NT - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 38 minutes ago

    The work/life criss facing lawyers today is not unique to mothers or women generally.  The billable hour model is bad for everyone.  Male and female lawyers are unhappy in the law firm model that measures an attorneys’ value in tenths of the hour.

18. Posted by Diamond Jim - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 32 minutes ago

    We didn’t make again this year. I think we are going to have to cut out the wet T-shirt contests for the female associates at nexr years summer picnic.

19. Posted by Stephanie - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 14 minutes ago

    For those of you who measure success by how many digits are in your annual salary, best of luck. It’s all about choice, isn’t it? I work in the public sector and love it. I am not making a huge paycheck, and wouldn’t want to if it meant that my family life would suffer. I work 4 miles from home and have a flexible schedule in which to complete a 40-hour work week. That’s the choice I made, and it echoes the one I made during law school, even though I could have gone to NYC and worked at a big IP firm. I know lots of other women and men who have made similar monetary sacrifices and are pleased that they chose the intangible reward of public sector work over the private firm grind. I think the Working Mother article and the Journal missed an opportunity to discuss real options.

20. Posted by LE - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 1 minute ago

    Richard Wadsworth:  What is this firm you speak of that provides 2 year maternity leave on the firm’s dime?  I’d LOVE to know it.

21. Posted by Left the Big Firm - 3 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 22 hours, 21 minutes ago

    I left a large firm to start my own boutique, because I wanted to address my work/life issues in a way that wasn’t dictated by anyone else.  In staffing our firm, we have tapped into the market of former big firm mommies, who are happy to work remotely and are incredibly reliable, energetic, and grateful for a job.  They are easier to deal with and more dependable than any associates I dealt with at the big firms where I was a partner.  Big firms may well be unsulited for most women who want to be involved with their kids, but as it becomes possible for small firms to use experience and technology to provide competition to those big firms at a more affordable rate, these moms may have an opportunity to get the last laugh.

22. Posted by Priscilla Ruth MacDougall - 3 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 22 hours, 10 minutes ago

    Whenever I see Molly McDonough’s by-line, I know the article will be tops and this one is no exception. She captures the essence of a contemporary phenomenon. After all that work, and then, law firms…

23. Posted by Large Firm Partner - 3 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 20 hours, 1 minute ago

    JK really has it right.  There must be THOUSANDS of firms that are more woman-friendly than any of these 50, I know of LOTS of them, small firms where you can choose who you work with, both in terms of partners and clients, and you have a more satisfying life then even the men in big firms.  Do you know what percentage of men have left big firms because they don’t want to work that hard?  Do you know how many men have been divorced and ruined their families because they couldn’t make the decision to leave big firms?  Lots and lots.

24. Posted by Cunyon in Chicago - 3 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 17 hours, 35 minutes ago

    The comments reveal that work-life balance is still an issue that we need to continually address in law firms of all sizes.  I agree that life-work balance is not a women’s issue; but women in law firms are the ones who have framed it as a women’s equity issue. For as long as I can remember from my 10 years in a large firm through the present, I have heard that old saw about how “society” puts certain unfair burdens on women. I think women do themselves a disservice when they admit that they need their employers to accommodate the fact that they did not better negotiate the most important relationship of all—the one at home with their life mates.  DR, I’m sorry.  When you say “Unfortunately in our society, childrearing . . . still fall[s] almost exclusively on women…whether they work or not,“ you neglect an important point.  Rearing children does not simply “fall” on a woman in a two working- parent family; somewhere, somehow, those parents decide that the burden would not fall equally.  Any working woman lawyer with a $100,000, cracker-jack legal education, who can do M&A, commercial litigation, antitrust, divorce - - whatever—ought to be smart enough to fashion a balanced home life with a person who will not let the “burden” of the household or rearing children “fall” disproportionately on her.    I don’t think a woman who creates or tolerates a certain kind of family structure and expectations should then ask for balance from the employer whose big salary she accepts; she should be asking for it at home, with the person she loves, honors, cherishes, etc.  If the burden still “falls” on her, she should take a good hard look at the bed she made, and who is lying in it with her.

25. Posted by LawStudent - 3 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 14 hours, 39 minutes ago

    My family law professor informed the class that 80% of two professional marriages end in divorce. Doesn’t sound as though marrying a female lawyer would be a very smart move if your object is to make a family that is likely to stay together.

26. Posted by NJ - 3 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 3 hours, 58 minutes ago

    Richard Wadsworth, post #16—“Men should not make fools of the women”?  Agreed.  But, just as importantly, nor should women make fools of the men.  That seems to be happening at a far greater rate than the former.  And, you say… “but we grin and bear it if we want to be known as woman friendly” ...exactly.  But WHY on earth would you WANT to be known as “women friendly”? ...so you can attract more leeches like this?  The men who “skate” are a known quantity.  But why on earth would you want to advertise to women who want to milk the system as well, albeit in a different (and arguably much worse) way?  Guys with this attitude have no _____ anymore.  Its downright pathetic.

27. Posted by NJ - 3 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 3 hours, 53 minutes ago

    “Cunyon in Chicago” and “LawStudent” (#25, #26), excellent, I agree.  Finally, posts that are making sense.

28. Posted by Bob Warburton - 3 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 3 hours, 23 minutes ago

    NJ (#26), you should realize that firms need to show diversity in order to glean business, both from the private sector as well as government.  It isn’t a perfect system.  If there are not enough women or mnnority in the firm, we get dinged, and we lose business.  This is just a cost of doing business.  We cant have 100% white males (which would probably result in more billable hours); we have to accommodate (i.e., carry) others that don’t bring home the bacon, but are necessary evils if we want to get business. You may have read that Microsoft is paying more per hour if we hire minorities.  They recognize that it is stylish, but also that it’s more costly.  So we are planning to make sure we don’t lose business.

29. Posted by NJ - 3 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 2 hours, 54 minutes ago

    Thanks.  Good point… duly noted.  I do not “agree” with it, but as America being the great (or not so great, depending on how you want to look at it) “melting pot” that it is, its a cost of doing business.  So much for survival of the fittest.  (But no, I’m not a Republican, not voting for McCain…)

30. Posted by LawStudent - 3 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 1 hour, 15 minutes ago

    There really is a simple way of dealing with this. Have a two tier pay system. One pays for business brought through the door and the other pays a percentage of what the lawyer bills. Less billing, less pay. No need to lower a person’s “salary”, because they don’t have a “salary.“ Use a draw system and adjust it quarterly. Keep your work product standard high.  The firm could establish a minimum number of hours billed in a certain period of time for automatic termination. The firm will prosper and women (or men) who produce less for what ever reason will simply be paid less. I have heard it said that an “eat what you kill” pay system is uncivilized. Well, uncivilized or not it certainly separates the men from the boys, euphamistically speaking. A law firm is a business. The best businesses make the most money.

31. Posted by Sue - 3 months, 2 weeks, 1 day, 22 hours, 17 minutes ago

    Wow, I’d heard that there were a lot of male neanderthals practicing law, but to see them all posting on the same page! I think my IQ was lowered 20 points just by reading these comments.

32. Posted by Alvin Dalhousie - 3 months, 2 weeks, 1 day, 17 hours, 9 minutes ago

    What in the blazes is “Sue” (#31) chatting about?  I’ve read the commentary and for the most part find such commentary to be well balanced.  This is the kind of woman (perhaps not a barrister) that gives other females a bad reputation—broad generalisations, little facts and no support.  If her arguments were a corset, it would sink first off..  Fortunately, the other barristers on the site (male and female) appear to be coherent, restoring my faith in the profession.