Magic Circle Lawyer - Would 4 days be career suicide?

[RosieIrene]

I am a senior associate at a magic circle law firm. I have two DD (1 and 3). I returned to work full time after each one but am now finding it very difficult to balance. Tried working at home one day a week but always seem to have to go into office. I love what I do but want more time with DDs. Does 4 days a week work? Would it be career suicide or did decision to have kids as senior associate effectively already end career progression?

Ah lisalisa, I have a finish at 3pm arrangement as well. Not as a fee-earner, but as support staff (sort of PSL, too complicated) within the same MC firm I worked as pre-kids as a fee-earner.

Rosie, the firm refused my flex working request as a fee-earner, but were happy to give it if I changed roles to support staff with consequent discount in pay (still worth my while to get out of bed and pay for ft childcare a few times over because I was quite senior). Ultimately, they were not prepared to pay me fee-earner rates for a flex role.

I think PSL-ing is a good coasting area that lends itself better to flex working. YOu stay in touch with the law and your skills. And can get back in the saddle when you are ready, as you maintain your contacts and credibility within the firm - particularly if your area of law is at the cycle where it is hot.

RosieIrene - does your husband take an equal share of domestic and childcare duties (even if you have a cleaner/nanny it still takes organisation). If one of your DDs is sick is it always you that comes home? If he is not taking an equal share and it is always you taking the hit and leaving the office then HE is the one having his cake and eating it IMO! I am presumming it is you that leaves at 6/7 to relieve the nanny and not him? If it is important for you to succeed then he has to help you and share the responsibility.

You are in an impossible situation otherwise, trying to balance everything!
Good luck , it is not easy. I think 4 days sounds ideal for you to get some control back even if it does side-line a bit, you can come back all guns blazing in a few years time.

i agree that your husband is the one who is having his cake and eating it too if it is always you who has to relieve the nanny, cover sickness etc.

I was a partner in big 4 accounting firm, made partner pre kids. was on 4 days a week in terms of money but in reality was trying to do a full time job. i did it for 5 years or so, quite well i think, but was always frazzled. eventually hit a brick wall and left altogether. my career wasnt stalled, because i was expected to deliver what a fulltimer was achieving. when i left there was one other part time partner (out of about 500 partners in total!) - to be fair she seemed to make it work better than me, was a bit stricter with colleagues and clients and to some extent didnt have the option to throw it up like me. so i would say it can work, but it is exhausting. compressed working week and always on call would be a better description for the few part timers at the tops of most professions.

RosieIrene, can you contemplate a career outside the magic circle? I am a partner in the London office of a national firm, and got my equity 8 months PG with DC2. Even if you knew which firm I worked for, this alone would not be enough to identify me - how much of a contrast is that with your place? It can be tough here sometimes, but it's not as bad as the MC. I think mid-tier firms have to be more flexible to attract and retain good lawyers. This is gradually feeding through to my colleagues, and this year we promoted two part-timers to partnership (I am FT), and we have recruited a PT partner, and offered to another candidate who was PT.

I agree with Anchovy, the more senior you are the easier it is, because you get more control over your work. Whether you will ever get enough control is something determined by your clients, IME. One of my most demanding clients has a corporate culture of not working after 5.30pm or at weekends - I still need to draft docs in the evening for them sometimes, but there's no late night completions.

The thing that really will be career suicide is for you is the fact that it is always you taking time off or coming in exhausted when your DCs are ill/ going to the dentist/ whatever. Probably not what you want to hear. You really do need to work out what a successful life is for you, and your family, and I hope once you have done that things will be clearer.

Another point I would echo is that things will change as your DCs get older. I have always worked FT, but now DS1 is starting school, I find I want to know more about that part of his life, so I'm working from home one day a week (no-one has noticed yet ) and might go to 4 days sometime next year. Maybe this will help you, if you think it's not forever.

Well I was a Trainee Solicitor up until last Saturday when i received letter through my door saying that I had been dismissed and must not return to work, all because I had taken time off to look after my daughter when nursery couldn't take her.

I know working full time, wanting a career in law and wanting to spend quality time with your kids is difficult. I wanted both, but I had a boss who didn't understand.

I think you can have a successful career with the right firm and boss, but the quality time with our kids will suffer if you carry on working full time, it's a catch 22 situation.

Magic Circle law firms are hard to get into to start with and I do think from reading and agreeing with other threads that partnership may not be offered if your part time. First things first, is to see whether they will offer you part time hours, if so, and partnership isn't a big deal at present go for it, the money should still be good.

I found it hard working part time as I wanted to be at work on a full time basis, as I didn't have enough hours in the day to deal with my workload or see enough clients. Good luck with your decision and remember you can always go full time again in the future when your kids are at school.

God Sketchi - that's awful... I don't suppose there's any point in pursuing them with the DTI's "compassionate leave" provisions? I left the law years ago at 3 yrs pqe to rebrand myself as a psychologist/trainer and although I sometimes hanker after being a "professional" again, reading stories like the OP and yours make me take off those rose tinted glasses...

Good luck to both of you....

As someone who is ex MC, with a DH who is a partner in an MC-equivalent firm (US not "silver circle"), I'd say that 4 days a week is going to be a struggle, even apart from the career progression point. Ultimately as per anchovy's first post, it's going to very much depend on your practice area, but in the MC even the advisory areas tend to find themselves supporting transactions, so I doubt you'd be immune. The problem is guaranteeing that the day off will/can happen - the very senior people and even partners I know who have gone for four days a week have ended up working "on average" four days a week, but not managing to have the same day off every week iyswim. In my view - and this is what prompted me to move - the problem is not so much the firms themselves who, as noted above, are trying to be progressive, but the clients, who are paying a lot of money for the services and don't have a particular interest in your wellbeing (again, I'm generalising). Depending on where you are on the partnership track / whether you want partnership, one option (which I didn't explore but probably should have with the benefit of hindsight) would be to speak with the partners about the possibility of a long term secondment with a client. This has the advantage of (i) regular hours for you during the next year or so,(ii) firm strengthening its relationship with client; (iii) you finding out whether you'd like to work in house as an alternative. The MC firm I was at thought this was a good option for people in your circumstances.

good luck!