By Karen Dybis
Deborah Epstein Henry seemingly has it all — three healthy sons, a successful career as a commercial litigator and now a widely recognized consulting service that helps law firms and businesses develop work-life practices.
But it wasn’t always this way. About 10 years ago, Henry was like many other working mothers. She struggled with how to balance her desire for a family, work part time and stay on a partnership track at work.
So she sent an email to three female lawyers in her firm and three others who were working part time. Her goal was to develop a brown-bag lunch group for like-minded attorneys. They could sit, eat and talk about how they keep work and life in check.
Within days, more than 150 responses to her first invitation flooded her email. As her mailing list grew, Henry started holding regular meetings to discuss flexible hours, reduced schedules and other work-life issues.
“It was a sign that I had struck a nerve. I was obviously not alone,” Henry said.
She founded Flex-Time Lawyers LLC in September 2002. Mostly women attended the meetings, so she began to tailor the content to them. Meeting topics included career advice, networking opportunities and other subjects related to the retention and promotion of women in the legal profession.
By 2007, Henry was running chapters in New York and Philadelphia. So she hung up her litigator’s robe and began working as a consultant on a full-time basis. These days, Henry advises lawyers, law firms and corporations on how to maintain a work-life balance.
Through Flex-Time Lawyers, Henry approached Working Mother magazine to create the 50 Best Law Firms for Women list. Now in its second year, the list is a guide for students, associates and partners on which firms are creating women-friendly policies to attract and retain top talent.
Henry believes work-life balance is a gender-neutral subject. However, she is particularly sensitive to the needs of young female attorneys — especially considering about half of all law school students are women.
“This is much more of an issue for today’s law students from day one,” Henry said. “As Generation Y graduates, they are saying they don’t want to practice law the old-fashioned way. They want a life. They want that balance.”
As a result, she recommends women look carefully at potential employers during the hiring process. That means looking on people’s desks for pictures of children, checking for utilization rates for part-time policies and asking for written work-life policies when considering a job offer.
