Firms Looking to Retain Talent Are More Accepting of Flexible Work Arrangements
The stigma long associated with not making partner the same time as classmates is melting way, even more so lately as newly minted lawyers enter the profession with an expectation that they will have a life outside of the office.
“For today’s people coming fresh out of law school, it’s not at all unusual for them to talk to you about their desire to have balance of life,” Roger Quillen, chairman and managing partner of Atlanta-based Fisher & Phillips, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The AJC notes several non-traditional career paths, including a woman who left BigLaw to operate an Atlanta restaurant, but works as a lawyer for Birmingham’s Counsel on Call in the evenings. Another lawyer took seven months off to do intensive backpacking and mountain climbing. And yet another took time to get his pilot’s license.
“The newcomers,” the AJC observes, “have a new set of expectations and definitions of success. Though they’re just as dedicated and hardworking as their predecessors, not all of new attorneys define success as making partner in the requisite six to eight years.”
“There’s no denying that there was a stigma as being the person who didn’t make the jump (to partner) at the same time as his classmates,” Quillen said. “I think most firms are becoming much more qualitative in their analysis. What we see is more attention to the individual progress of the person.”
