Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: Creating Opportunities for Better Balance
Findings: Forty-six percent of men partners, 69 percent of women partners, 66 percent of men associates, and 75 percent of women associates express difficulty managing the demands of their work and personal/family responsibilities. While both men and women lawyers experience work-life balance difficulty, the challenge of managing work and personal/family responsibilities is felt disproportionately by women lawyers, especially women associates.
As well, clear perception gaps exist among lawyers on the issue of work-life balance. Eighty-four percent of women associates, 66 percent of men associates, and 62 percent of women partners indicate an environment more supportive of personal and family commitments as important when evaluating law firms as a place to work, compared to 37 percent of men lawyers. Sixty-eight percent of men partners are satisfied with their overall work environment, compared to 54 percent of women partners, 52 percent of men associates, and 42 percent of women associates.
These results suggest men partners perceive and experience the law firm work environment differently from women partners, women associates, and men associates, sometimes dramatically.
However, work-life balance dissatisfaction is not inevitable. This study demonstrates that law firms can positively impact the work-life balance experiences of lawyers. Indeed, lawyers' perceptions of performance norms (i.e., advancement depends on putting career before personal/family life) and firm management and leadership are both predictors of lawyers' work-life balance satisfaction. Bu addressing these aspects of the law firm work environment, we suggest firms can make strides on the work-life balance conundrum. More specifically, law firms committed to creating greater work-life effectiveness need to:
- Understand the firm environment
- Know what is important to lawyers in your firm
- Partner with lawyers at each level to develop work and life solutions
- Create and communicate parameters for success
- Role model through demonstrated leadership
Impetus : The Flexibility in Canadian Law Firms series is Catalyst's contribution to law firm's efforts to address work-life balance issues among their lawyers. The first report in the series, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: Building the Business Case for Flexibility (March 2005), analyzed the work-life balance perceptions and challenges faced by law firm associates and then calculated the financial impact of losing top legal talent using standard cost accounting methods. The second report of the series, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: Creating Opportunities for Better Balance (November 2006) provides a baseline of how associates and partners perceive work-life balance within their firms, explores possible factors that influence and predict lawyers' work-life balance perceptions and attitudes, and determines if there are differences in work-life balance perceptions and attitudes among women and men lawyers. The third report in the series will be released in 2006.
Methodology: A web-based survey was fielded to lawyers in more than 100 Canadian law firms in the fall of 2003.
More than 1,400 lawyers participated in the survey, including 846 associates.
Qualitative data from interviews and focus groups with men and women lawyers provides supplemental data points and context.
Lead Sponsors: Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP; Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP; McCarthy Tetrault LLP; Ogilvy Renault; Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, LLP
Participating Sponsors: Blake, Cassels & Graydon, LLP; Borden Ladner Gervais, LLP; Goodmans LLP; McMillan Binch LLP; Torys LLP
