I spend a fair amount of time considering why it is that women are so under represented in the partnerships of large law firms. I do this as a semi-professional endeavor but also due to my own self-interest as a junior associate who (1) intends to make partner in a few years and some day be involved in the management of my current firm and (2) wonders if there is something that I am not anticipating that will drive me from practice as has happened to so many partnership tracked women ahead of me.

One of the key pieces of this equation is child bearing/rearing -- I know this is no great revelation as anyone with a brain and eyes can see that more women leave practice due to child-raising conflicts than men.  However, I have also been a believer that programs for re-entry into the profession after having taken some time to have and raise kids is a critical part of solution to keeping women in the profession. 

At every luncheon or symposium or conference that I have attended regarding women or diversity in the legal profession an audience member asks a panel (who are are inevitably highly experienced professionals) how a woman can get back into practice after taking some time off to have a few kids.  Sometimes this is an older male lawyer who is purportedly asking on behalf of his law student daughter. Sometime it is asked by a female lawyer who looks like she is in the last trimester of pregnancy and possibly starting to think about not going back to the firm after maternity leave.  Sometimes it is asked by a woman who looks frankly at the end of her rope with a little dried baby formula on her suit jacket and a stack of documents in her briefcase that she carries around just hoping to bill every 6 minutes of down time during the conference.  Each time the panelist who speaks up first runs down a list of things that a woman in that situation should do.  The lists always and predictably include things such as:  attending bar association events, keeping connected with former colleagues, taking relavant CLE courses, working part time or free-lancing a little, doing some volunteer work, etc, etc.  The panelists usually have a lifetime of anecdotal evidence that a woman can balance it all if necessary but are not usually people that, in fact, took any time off to have kids and then successfully re-entered high-power practice.  Why is that?  Perhaps because the chance of a woman (or man for that fact) leaving big firm practice for a few years and then coming back in is about equal to the chance that lightning will strike the same place twice.  Sure there are success stories out there but they are few and far between.

Well, recently I was at an event where Holly Fujie, the president of the California State Bar was speaking.  She was talking to an audience of primarily female attorneys and the focus of her speech was "power".  During the question and answer session she was asked the usual question about re-entry and what women lawyers that are contemplating leaving the profession for a while should expect and what they should do to stay ready and able to come back.  Her answer -- DON'T LEAVE.  She told the assembled group that women should do everything they can to not leave because it was just too hard to come back in.  I agree.  We need to find a way to keep women from leaving practice.

Here's the thing, especially about BigLaw -- there is too much supply and not enough demand.  This is true in today's economy more than ever but was also true before the recent recession.  There are too many law schools that are producing too many lawyers and if you aren't willing to keep practicing, there is somebody who is.  There is no reason for a law firm to hire a lawyer that has been home changing diapers for the last two years when there are eager lawyers out there who have never stepped away, who have more current skills and have shown a dedication to practicing that can't be challenged by somebody who took a few years off.  So, women out there-- stay practicing.  Scale back, rearrange your personal life, but... if you want to be partner or department chair, or any other form of "the boss" do what you can to stay in the profession and be realistic about the long term impact of stepping away for even just a short time.  The truth is that it is hard, if not impossible, to pick up where you left off and don't be fooled by the "stay connected, take CLE" advice that is unproven and unpracticed.