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Law firms are becoming more sensitive to work/life balance issues.

Well, some of them, anyway.

Long known for its long hours and intense career demands, the legal profession is finally loosening up a bit. An increasing number of law firms are offering part-time hours, flexible work schedules and telecommuting options.

Some are even welcoming back attorneys who have been out of the profession for years on extended leaves

“Lawyers are looking for flexibility in the workplace more than anything else,” says Ellen Ostrow, head of consulting firm Lawyers Life Coach. “In firms offering billable hour tiers, you see people choosing fewer hours for less money.”

Deborah Epstein Henry, who leads the work-life balance consulting firm Flex-Time Lawyers, adds: “It’s no longer an isolated, small group of people in the profession, and it’s not just a working mom issue.”

Four factors are converging to make law firms pay attention to work/life issues, according to Henry:

• Increased hours. Lawyers are working longer hours than ever, and it’s taking a toll.

• Technology. The good news is lawyers can work at home more, but the bad news is that thanks to laptops and PDAs, they’re never off-duty.

• Attrition. Seventy-eight percent of associates leave their firms within five years, according to the National Association for Law Placement Foundation.

• Changing demographics. Young lawyers are demanding more balance in their lives, while baby boomers are transitioning into retirement by working reduced hours and flexible schedules.

Thinking more creatively

At Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York City, 36 attorneys work reduced hours, including both men and women who chose that schedule for a variety of reasons, not just child care.

“People are thinking much more creatively about their work and how they manage their lives,” says Renee DeSantis, director of associate development.

Magdalena Lorenz, 36, is an associate at the firm who works at home two days a week. She says telecommuting allows her to spend more time at her Victorian home in the Catskills.

At Bryan Cave, an international firm based in St. Louis, 39 attorneys – including seven partners – work reduced-hour schedules.

“We have seen an increase, and the reason for it is because we’ve had a number of people use it and there haven’t been any repercussions,” says Lori Johnson, the firm’s director of human resources.

Lucinda Althauser, an intellectual property lawyer in Bryan Cave’s St. Louis’s office, has been working a flex schedule for 11 years.

The firm’s flex-time policy, Althauser says, simply requires attorneys to “come up with a schedule that works for you, and if it’s okay with the people with whom you do most of your work, then it’s fine with the firm.”

Erasing the stigma

But it’s not always a rosy picture.

Despite growing interest in flex-time options, many lawyers don’t use them. Most large law firms offer reduced-hour schedules, but only 5.4 percent of attorneys nationwide worked part-time in 2007, according to the National Association for Legal Career Professionals.

The biggest obstacle is attorneys’ fears that working less than full time will damage their careers, several experts say.

A recent report by the New York State Bar Association’s Special Committee on Balanced Lives in the Law concluded that absent a strong commitment from law firm management, the policies simply aren’t used.

“It is in a law firm’s best interest to work with individuals who choose to go on reduced hours or alternative arrangements, and to make it work,” asserts Lauren Stiller Rikleen, a partner at Massachusetts-based Bowditch & Dewey and executive director of the Bowditch Institute for Women’s Success.

“When that happens, the opportunities for success are enormous,” she says. “When it doesn’t happen, and the onus is on the person trying to work that schedule to make it effective, it invariably fails.”

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