My Shingle

Work Life Balance

When Should You Make “The Big Reveal?”

July 31, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant
Print Friendly

In dating, it’s known as "the big reveal" – the point in an emerging relationship where both participants put everything out on the table, from old flames to skeletons in the closet to religious preferences and desire for marriage and children.  Deciding when to make the big reveal is tricky.  Disclose too soon and you [...]

Read more Work Life Balance 0 comments

Happy Fathers’ Day to the Unsung Solo Dads

June 21, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant
Print Friendly

My dad was what you’d call a company man; he worked as a chemist for a major pharmaceutical company for 35 years until he retired in 1997, avid to spend time with his first grandchild and the six others who would later follow.   My dad’s job didn’t offer much flexibility in terms of dress [...]

Read more Work Life Balance 0 comments

Mommy, You’re A Hypocrite!

May 27, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant
Print Friendly

Yesterday, while driving home from the mall with my daughters, they began fantasizing about the day that my older daughter would get her license (still four years off) so that they could go shopping together, sans mom.   My daughters then asked if I’d let them take the car to the mall or other destinations when [...]

Read more Work Life Balance 0 comments

There Is No Stress Like…

May 22, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant
Print Friendly

Many of you may know what it’s like to stand up when the jury verdict’s about to be read.  Your heart pounds, your palms sweat and you get weak in the knees.   The seconds seem like an eternity as you wait to learn the result. Before I became a mom, I could think of nothing [...]

Read more Work Life Balance 1 comment

The Twenty-First Century Mom Lawyer: A Life Without Seams

May 10, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant
Print Friendly

October 21, 1996 marks the day that I qualified to celebrate Mothers’ Day with the birth of my first daughter, Elana.  Exactly a week to the day of my daughter’s birth, I donned the one non-maternity work skirt that still fit me (albeit with the top button open), slipped a boxy red blazer over my [...]

Read more Work Life Balance 0 comments

Michael D.J. Eisenberg – The Other Woman (or how technology helped me take a vacation)

January 22, 2009 by Carolyn Elefant
Print Friendly

The Other Woman . . . I admit it, there is another woman.  She is alluring, demanding, and very intrusive.  And yet my wife puts up with my law practice. I am writing this while on vacation in the Caribbean.  We had a vacation like this a year ago and my new wife was so [...]

Read more Law Practice Management 0 comments

Your Partner in Life and Law

September 29, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant
Print Friendly

Update – a reader tipped me off to this letter from Bruce Allen’s Marketing Catalyst that seeks a spouse’s buy in when a professional signs up for Allen’s services.  Actually, I think one of the hardest things for a spouse to understand is that new solos need to invest much of their extra in business [...]

Read more Law Practice Management 6 comments

What Michelle Obama Couldn’t Have Found at The (So-Called) Fifty Best Law Firms For Women.

August 26, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant
Print Friendly

I’m not much of a political junkie, but I made a point of watching Michelle Obama’s speech to the Democrat National Convention.   Michelle (it’s tough for me to refer to someone a few months older than me as "Mrs.")  intrigues me, largely because she’s a contemporary with many superficialities in common:   we both graduated law [...]

Read more Biglaw Practice and Issues 10 comments

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

January 23, 2008 by Carolyn Elefant
Print Friendly

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 [...]

Read more Work Life Balance 2 comments

Been on Vacation — and Off the Grid!

August 11, 2007 by Carolyn Elefant
Print Friendly

Sorry for the silence here at My Shingle – I’ve been on a long awaited vacation this week (and here’s the proof!). I know that many bloggers often leave a stock of blog posts to auto-post while they’re away, but I prefer real time postings (anything else is too much like a newspaper article to [...]

Read more Articles 2 comments

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →