Flexible Legal Arrangements Can Work – At Least Some of the Time…
It’s all about the clients. And what’s great to hear is that many of today’s clients don’t just tolerate but increasingly, are coming to accept lawyers for whom work-life balance matters. At least that’s been the experience of Frances Wood and Jennifer Gold, the two women who founded Wood Gold, an Ontario-based, family friendly law firm featured in The Star.
Undoubtedly, the firm has succeeded because of the partners’ legal talents – they toiled for years at large firms before teaming up to launch their own. Moreover, these women aren’t slackers – they’ll come in on the weekend or work after hours to get the job done. But ultimately, the reason that the arrangement works is because the firm’s clients support it. Take this example:
Not long ago, [Gold] was finalizing a matrimonial settlement for the vice-president of a bank. He came in to go over the details but wanted a number of changes. “I can come in on the weekend, but I’ll have to bring my two-year-old,” Gold told him. He agreed and she completed the redraft with a toddler on her lap. “He never complained. In fact he has referred other clients to me.”
A family-friendly law firm isn’t for every client – just as a blustering attorney who promises to get rid of the vermin that is your spouse isn’t every client’s first choice either. However, as corporations grow more family friendly, and as technology enables more individuals to start businesses nights and weekends while working a day job, the need for law firms that know how to work flexibly and accommodate odd schedules.
Indeed, Gold and Wood acknowledge that it’s not just technology that has enabled the success of their firm, but changing attitudes:
A law firm like Wood Gold wouldn’t have been possible a generation ago,” [Wood] admits. “The clients wouldn’t have been as accepting, we wouldn’t have been able to attract the same calibre of young associates, we wouldn’t have been seen as a success.
Of course, clients aren’t the only barrier to work-life balance in the legal profession since lawyers also work within the confines of the more regimented and less forgiving court system. Thus, the success that WoodGold has found with its business model sharply contrasts the hurdles that female attorneys with heavily-court based practices face. A few weeks back, I blogged about the attorney forced to bring her baby to court. And more recently, the media has been covering the story of Deborah Misir, an attorney in her 6th month of a high risk pregnancy who’s awaiting a ruling on her motion to reschedule a trial over vehement opposition by the US Attorneys’ Office. The AG’s Office claims that Misir already asked for a continuance to travel to a conference in Washington DC during her pregnancy, so it questions the validity of her claim. For me, that’s a low blow – a woman who asserts a high risk pregnancy shouldn’t be forced to produce a doctor’s note to support a continuance or forced to come into court and put her unborn child in peril.
Even so, the AG’s motion raises valid questions. For example, would the court postpone a trial for 6 months for a lawyer was in an auto-accident (probably yes) or who need to recover from unanticipated but necessary surgery set after the trial date is scheduled (perhaps not)? If a lawyer has a back up attorney – either at a firm or a co-counsel like Misir, is that sufficient?
Misir’s case is really an outlier. She’s handling a unique case in unique circumstances. And while the AG’s motion introduced sexist undertones into the conversation, I’m not sure of whether Misir’s case is symbolic of sexism in the profession since the question of whether a lawyer should be granted a continuance for health reasons, whatever the source, is one that courts must grapple with in other contexts.
And because Misir’s case is an outlier, it shouldn’t be used as an excuse to make the argument that women can’t cut it in the legal profession or that work-life balance isn’t feasible. Many of the matters handled by lawyers aren’t as high-stakes, must-be-there cases and therefore, can be competently handled through the kinds of flexible arrangements that are at the core of WoodGold’s practice.