Balanstories

By Rupa G. Singh

Those who would dismiss flexible and reduced hour options in the legal profession as a “perk” to be offered only during good economic times should think again.  The profession can not afford the loss of talented, productive, and profitable lawyers, whether due to attrition in a good economic climate or layoffs in the current economic downturn.  From its underlying spirit to its core tools and methodology, Balanomics™ makes a clear business case for implementing practical, transparent, and reason-neutral work/life balance solutions in both a good economy and the current recession.

As the combination of the words “balance” and “economics” in Balanomics™ signifies, there are serious economic considerations underlying a legal employer’s assessment of whether to offer work/life balance options.  The lack of work/life balance has negative economic consequences for the legal profession because employers lose smart and talented attorneys (including a disproportionate number of women), whether due to documented attrition in good economic times or rushed layoffs in bad ones.  The resulting loss of the employer’s investment dollars in the departing attorney, increase in eventual recruiting/replacement costs, erosion of institutional knowledge, alienation of future legal talent, and disruption of client service necessarily leads to a decline in the long-term profitability of the entire venture.  For clients, the costs escalate due to the lack of continuity in the outside counsel team, from having to pay for new hires to get up to speed to delays in deals or litigation.  By contrast, a well-implemented policy on full-time flexible, reduce hour, parental leave, and other alternative schedules, when accompanied by commensurate compensation reductions, can improve a law firm or law department’s long-term profitability by buffering the organization from attrition during good economic times and keeping it lean during a down market. 

 

There are additional benefits that tailored work/life balance policies bring to providers and consumers of legal services, again both in good and bad economic times.  For example, offering work/life balance options can improve employee morale by minimizing the attrition of talented lawyers in a thriving market.  Meanwhile, offering reduced hour options with a proportionate pay cut in lieu of layoffs during a downturn can build employee loyalty, both in the short-term and when the retention risks increase during the inevitable boom times to come.  Moreover, instead of losing attorneys with non-transferable, specialized skills or institutional client knowledge due to attrition or layoffs, employers retain their niche skills with the flexibility to serve clients as needed or remain well-poised to ramp up once business improves.  And without regard to the state of the economy, no legal employer can go wrong by fostering a workplace culture that emphasizes responsiveness, work quality, and accessibility over face time. 

 

Using work/life balance solutions as a way to improve profitability makes even more sense given the current pressure to reduce legal fees in a competitive and technologically-advanced global economy, with options to off-shore legal work, employ virtual law firms, and seek alternative fee arrangements to the billable hour model.  Meanwhile, the revelation by general counsels that they already consider their outside counsel to be “part-time” to the extent that they must work for other clients and on other matters, dispels the myth that work/life balance is fundamentally inconsistent with client needs.  Generational shifts further confirm that law firms and law departments need to offer work/life balance options as part of a well-rounded business strategy, especially given the younger generation’s grassroots call to look at gender-neutral work/life balance options as a factor in evaluating prospective employers.

 

To address the challenge of devising work/life balance policies to suit the different stakeholders’ needs, Balanomics™ seeks signatories from three sets of constituents—law firms, law departments, and professional associations—to endorse goals to improve work/life balance in the profession.  In addition to the dialogue that this all-inclusive approach is meant to encourage, Balanomics™ offers tools to address perceived challenges and obstacles to improving work/life balance, including but not limited to sample economic analyses that are being finalized.  

 

In keeping with the recent observation by many (including Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel) that a recession is a terrible thing to waste, this is exactly the time for all constituents to join Balanomics™ and improve balance, profitability, and professional satisfaction in the legal profession.