lawyers, billables and life balance
Here’s another interesting article discussing the road to work-life balance in the legal profession. It suggests that firms seeking to create a culture of balance for its lawyers and support staff cannot do it piecemeal. Instead, they need to widen the focus and makeover their firm’s management style and approach to attract and retain quality people with a common vision of what balance is. That vision might include reduced billable hours, new office space affording lower overhead, streamlined practice areas and marketing, and the use of “technology to increase lawyer and firm productivity (such as intrafirm networks, software, docketing and document management, Internet and online research, e-mail and voicemail).” I have been part of many conversations about fostering work-life balance. Although I’ve found little consensus on what “balance” means, most people agree that to take any larger balancing initiative from theory to practice, everyone in the firm must be on board and act as a team. Otherwise, competition and infighting will likely arise and sabotage the effort.
