It's About Time: Part-Time Policies and Practices in Atlanta Law Firms

Abstract:     
Women lawyers place enormous value on flexible work schedules. Firms that support such schedules reap benefits in the form of higher retention, increased profitability, and improved morale. In turn, the legal profession - and, on a broader level, society - experiences benefits in the form of part-time lawyers who are better situated to devote time to activities that make lawyers better citizens. These core conclusions emerged from the survey responses of 37 Atlanta-area law firms, representing more than 7,000 lawyers, and 167 individual attorneys - consisting of women and men, associates and partners, part-time and full-time lawyers, and retired and active attorneys. It's About Time presents the first comprehensive study of part-time policies and practices among Atlanta-area law firms and evaluates important ramifications of the finding that women, a growing majority in the law, highly value the opportunity to work part-time while continuing to advance their legal careers.

Keywords: firms, part-time, empirical, survey

JEL Classification: L21, J44, K40, K49

working papers series