My Shingle

Work/Life Balance & Women

Big News (NOT): Starting A Firm Helps Work Life Balance

January 23, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant

Nearly two years ago, I posted here about a panel addressing the issue of gender equality in the legal profession.  Strikingly absent from the panel, however, were solo female lawyers.  A month later, I wondered why we should care whether women reach the top at large firms, given that many voluntarily chose a better option [...]

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Who Knew That Women Leaving the Law Would Need to Pay $9000 To Get Back In?

November 5, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

I knew that many law schools and bar associations were developing programs to help women who’ve left the law re-enter the profession. But have to admit that until I read this New York Times story (hat tip to Lisa Solomon), I had no idea how much these programs cost – as much as $9000. For [...]

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It’s Never Too Early To Think About Starting A Business

November 2, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

Over at Escape from Cubicle Nation, Pam Slim suggests that you bring your kid to your start up day. The point of the Slim’s post is that by showing our children and others what we do, we lay the seeds for potential entrepreneurship. I’ve always adopted Slim’s approach, more by necessity than choice. My daughers [...]

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Why Are So Few Women Lawyers Solo?

September 13, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

Since women lawyers pull their own weight in the genre of solo and small firm blogs (along with me, there are my colleagues and friends, Susan Cartier Liebel and Inspired Solo’s Sheryl Schelin, I was surprised to learn that Few Women Choose to Practice Solo (NLJ 9/13/07). A recent study released by NALP revealed that [...]

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Are Women Fighting for Equality At Biglaw Behind the Times?

August 4, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

I was looking through some of these relatively new books on getting ahead in business and entrepreneurship that Marci Alboher reviewed in her Careers Column for the NY Times. (If you recall, I reviewed Marci’s book, One Person, Multiple Careers back here in February). What struck me about these three books – Anti 9 to [...]

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Should We Rescue Biglaw, Part II?

June 19, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

A while back, I posed the question whether women at large firms have some kind of duty to rescue biglaw and save it from becoming the exclusive domain of white men. Well, here’s an article, Women Leaven which suggests that many women aren’t doing that. Instead, they’re leaving law firms in droves for greener pastures, [...]

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Should We Rescue Biglaw, or Run From It?

April 5, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

At the Ms. JD conference that I attended last week, one woman responded to various remarks on the benefits of starting a firm (by some of us troublemakers in the picture) by saying something to the effect that “Starting a firm is all well and good, but if everyone flees biglaw life, firms will be [...]

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Summary of Ms.JD at Susan Cartier-Liebel’s Site

April 1, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

I can’t add anything except a big “me too!” to Susan Cartier-Liebel’s exhaustive summary of the recent Ms. JD conference held at Yale Law School yesterday.  The conference gave me a chance to finally meet Susan and reconnect with Lisa Solomon, Brandy Karl and, briefly, Cathy Kirkman whom I’d met previously. [Update] Lisa Solomon has [...]

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Does work-life balance mean we need to settle for a B+?

March 16, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

My colleague and fellow solo blogger, Jill Pugh Employment Law Blog tipped me off to an interesting new resource, Ms-JD to address the growing number of women leaving the legal profession or failing to reach the upper echelons of the profession. The site seems promising, though thus far, there’s little mention of the law firm [...]

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This One’s For All of You “Neglectful” Moms, Trying to Strike a Balance

March 2, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant

Just when I thought that I’d probably found the right formula to work-life balance, I discovered that I’m really nothing more than a neglectful mom.  I spent much of yesterday pushing to prepare a motion already a few days overdue to the client because of more pressing deadlines earlier in the week.  Since my daughters [...]

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