Law Students

Basic Psychology

By Peg

There is an very good article in last week's issue of Corporate Counsel magazine titled: Big-Firm Associates: Why They Go and How to Keep Them. I would recommend reading the entire article to anyone who, like me, is always thinking about the retention problem faced by big law firms. The article does not specifically address the problem of retaning women. However, I think the issue that it does address is universal and applies to men and women both. That issue is "[associates'] first professional experience after at least seven years of higher education is too unprofessional and demoralizing [and] that disappointment is a major reason for leaving..."

As I alluded to in earlier posts I have recently had some disheartening conversations with women attorneys in my local area about the issue of work/life balance. I say these conversations were disheartening mostly because of the real bias I have faced towards younger attorneys. I won't say that these conversations have completely broken my spirit but they have definitely made me sit back and re-think whether the fight for better work-life balance is the right one to be fighting. I am sort of feeling like the generation gap can't be breached. I fear that partners (male or female) may be able to recognize that younger attorneys want different things than they did when they were associates but that they will never recognize the differences as valid or honorable, if you will. I am starting to think that we need to be searching for other ways to retain associates, particularly women.

For this reason, I really like this Corporate Counsel article...

[More after the jump]

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Full post as published by Ms. JD on March 03, 2008 (boomark / email).