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Kab tak aayega yaar yeh appraisal
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Im about to do it. I dont care if its hard to get back in later. I can’t sacrifice my life and happiness and time with young kids that will disappear. I trust that i will forge my own path later and figure it out. Id rather regret giving up my career path than time with the kids. With a good cv, i am confident there will be a way back in even if it takes longer to find the right fit later on. Its not that the fit is perfect now for my life anyway other than on paper.
Just here to say I just did this too with the same reasoning!
You can do whatever you set your mind to do.
It’s going to be really hard especially in this market. Much better to go reduced pace until your kids can go to daycare and you can ramp back up.
Chief
Daycare or later. I don’t play to be full time until my kids are in college.
Chief
My spouse and I took as much leave as we could, 14 mos between us.
We both came back part time, 4 days a week.
We had a nanny plus PT preschool at 2 or 3.
It honestly worked out great. I feel like I have the best of both worlds pretty much every day.
Chief
It’s all over the map. My kids are older now and my spouse does all pickups and drop offs, so I have more flexibility. When they were little and around more, I probably billed an average of 5 hours a day. My hours target was only 800 a year for 2 years in the peak toddler years. Now I probably average 7 billable hours a day.
It is possible, but difficult and they are few on-ramps. You will be competing with folks who have not taken time off and you will not have fresh skills. But I am not telling you anything you dont know. But possible? Yes.
Agree with the commenter who advised looking into a reduced hours requirement for a few years and then ramping back up when you’re ready.
If you leave practice entirely, the key will be to maintain your strongest connections and relationships. In this scenario, “who you know” may be more advantageous than “what you know.” Wish it were easier for us moms!!
Can someone share their reduced hours schedule and pay structure? Would love to get an idea of how this works before I bring it up to management
I'm at a smaller firm. The full time billable expectation is 1800, but it's very loose--you're bonus eligible at 1600 and most people don't hit 1800 (by choice). When I proposed 1200 hours as my reduced schedule, I assumed I'd get a proportional pay cut using the 1800 hour figure. Instead my firm used 1650 hours since that was a more accurate figure in practice and closer to what my last few years had been, and reduced my salary proportionately from that, if that makes any sense. BUT--if I went over, they wouldn't do a full true up I don't think.
I left biglaw as a mid level in lit to do freelance/contract work for a number of years, so I was in charge of my hours and schedule and able to work very part time, but I don’t have any gaps on my resume. I mainly wrote briefs—it was great. I came back to a smaller firm a number of years ago; I got the job through my network, and the freelance work was a non issue. I suspect it would have been harder if I had wanted to return to big law. I think the key takeaway here is to maintain your network if you do step back.
Also, just fyi since others have mentioned it, I went to 60% in biglaw before I left, but it didn’t solve the “always on” problem. The smaller firms I’ve been at since coming back have been night and day better in that regard.
My firm is made up of former big law attorneys. Two of our junior partners are women who took 2-4 years off following big law to raise babies. Both joined our firm as senior associates and worked their way up to equity partners. They were a few years "behind" their classmates in terms of making partner but the time off didn't preclude them from getting there eventually. One came straight to us from the time off and one did a district court clerkship first.
I did it. Worked 5 years in big law, then stayed home for 6 years, then through connections did some part-time in-house legal work for a small company for 6 years, then started applying broadly for full time jobs and got one. So my advice is to keep up connections and certifications (during this time I became certified in mediation and privacy), and when you’re ready to return lower your expectations in terms of title/seniority and pay, at least for your first job back.
Holy shit! I’m proud of you, this is inspiring!!
I transitioned to a practice support role when I had my daughter. My job is to stay current on practice developments and trends so I don’t lose touch, but I don’t work with clients anymore so my schedule is flexible. I like this approach because it leaves open the door to returning to client work when she’s older.
Great point. I’m going to explore that.
Yes. It's possible. You need to have $ saved and a supportive family. I know both men and women who have taken 5-10 years away from practice to support their family. It works best when the person coming back is willing to check their ego and bar number and accept that people with higher bar numbers are now giving them work. I have also seen one person burn out terribly because they couldn't accept not being the boss
I don’t know, but anecdotally I haven’t met many women who did this. And the ones I’ve met who took a step back for side their career have not been able to find work or find work that they’ve liked (so all faced negative consequences for staying at home). I don’t think it’s fair and if I’m ever in a hiring position, I wouldn’t have an issue hiring someone who took time to raise kids. But I’m not in charge…