legal sanity

One of the inroads to creating work-life synergy in the law (pdf) is flextime work. I’ve covered this topic before, particularly in connection to the challenges faced by women lawyers. Lately, I’ve come across a number of articles and other commentary on the feasibility of these alternative work arrangements. Here’s a sampling of them for you:

• How to Ask About Flexible Hours
• Women Executives Discuss Flex Schedules
• Flexibility As a Key Talent Management Strategy (via the Job Blog)

I think these pieces team well with this set of compelling articles and posts on women engaging life in and out of the full-time paid workforce.

• The Job Without Benefits

 • Don’t tell me about admirable moms

• Hiding behind data about extreme jobs

• This One’s For All Of You Neglectful Moms

Through Lisa Solomon at Legal Research and Writing Pro, I learned of an interesting new effort called Ms. JD. Still in beta version, this is an online community started by a group of female law students concerned about “the rates at which women opt out of the legal profession, the lack of representation of women in the highest courts and echelons of the legal community, and the role of gender in the progression of many women’s legal careers.”

In addition to providing a cyber forum for dialoguing and networking, Ms. JD will formally launch at Legally Female, a national conference to be held at Yale Law School on March 31, 2007. You’ll find registration information here .

Endnote: After writing this post, I checked my feeds and saw that Carolyn Elefant of My Shingle published a post today on work-life balance that mentions Ms. JD and asks readers: “Have you found the elusive work life balance or do you feel that you're burning the candle at both ends?”