It died in 2008, as new lawyers watched in horror as their sellers’ market collapsed. No longer could they dictate the terms of employment. There was no employment. No longer could they explain in the job interview how they needed to be out of the office by 4:30 so they could go to junior’s soccer game or hit the bar for half-price chicken wings.  There were no interviews, and they were more inclined to offer junior as the free copy machine operator. 

And yet, it’s back.  Work/life balance. That fabulous concept that your work as a lawyer takes a backseat to your personal life.

In the  Law Practice Today section of the ABA’s law practice management magazine, a 2010 graduate of Boston College Law School, Victoria Santoro, who has a job, gives advice to the job-lorn:

Work/life balance can be a delicate topic for all young lawyers. Demands on your time come from more experienced and more powerful attorneys, and you will feel pressure to achieve and impress those above you to get ahead. It also has not escaped me that 55 percent of 2011 law graduates were unemployed nine months after graduation. I understand that with the pressure of the job search, and the pressure of a new job, work/life balance might not be the first consideration for many young lawyers. Still, despite wanting to either impress the partners or simply land a job (it will happen), it is important early on to create a lifestyle that you can maintain throughout your legal career. What is work/life balance? Why is it important for young attorneys? And how do you achieve work/life balance without inhibiting your success?

She’s absolutely right, a job will happen, provided you’re adept at using the expresso machine and know the difference between a caramel macchiato and a mocha frappuccino.  Aside from that, there are issues.

Before you begin advocating for yourself in attempts to achieve the ideal, but elusive, work/life balance, you need to know why this is something you want. Using some available statistics on employee engagement and productivity, it becomes very clear why balance is something you should be seeking out. No young lawyer wants to sound like they are searching out the ability to “slack,” so I suggest advocating for the three H’s: happy; healthy; and hopeful. These can serve as your guideposts as you search out flex time, telecommuting, and the other things necessary to achieving work/life balance.

No one disputes that work/life balance will make a young lawyer happier, especially if you don’t really like being a lawyer to begin with. But the argument that happy employees are more productive employees doesn’t translate well from the assembly line to the courtroom.  Embarking on a career as a lawyer begins with the recognition that you are taking on the responsibility of other people’s lives.  This isn’t about how many widgets you can put together in an hour, then wipe your hands and walk away.

But you have things you like to do, prefer to do, more than practice law?  That’s cool, but then you’ve chosen poorly. Law doesn’t happen at your convenience. Judges rarely ask whether the brief they demand tomorrow will interfere with a great band playing at a local club. It’s not wrong that you want to go, but that you enter into a responsibility thinking your good times trump duty.  The client, who sits awake at night believing that there is a professional working diligently to save him from ruin, has things he would rather be doing too.

Achieving work/life balance starts at the very beginning of your career.  Advocate for yourself when you begin at your job. You are in the most powerful position as a candidate after you have an offer, but have yet to accept.

So you are one of the lucky few to get an offer of employment as an actual working lawyer, and the first thing you do, before accepting the offer, is to engage in a sincere discussion with the hiring partner about your need for work/life balance? The next words you will hear are, “Sorry, but we’ve clearly made a  mistake. We will not require your services.”  Yes, this is the most powerful position you will be in as a candidate for employment. No, it’s not really powerful. Nor should you demand a corner office and a new BMW.

Santoro goes on to urge almost-hires to set boundaries, the extent to which you are willing to work given your need for work/life balance, communicate those boundaries so your erst-while employer is properly chastised as to your limits, and to organize.  One out of three ain’t bad.

The first two “suggestions” offered provide the shortest path to the front door.  Predicated on the mistaken belief that a lawyer with an offer on the table is suddenly empowered to make demands, it’s akin to telling your potential employer that you will work when and if it suits you.  After all, doesn’t every employer want to hear that its job comes second to the new-hires’ having a good time?

Santoro’s final suggestion, however, is a good one, and the only one that provides any real hope of actually landing the job while being able to go to Suzie’s dance recital.  Organize.

Organizing your work life and personal life will certainly take the most effort, but the rewards will be large if you take the time to plan.

She’s quite right when she says this will take the most effort, as it requires thinking, which can often cause the brain to hurt.  Plan ahead. Get on top of your work immediately, so that you get it done when time is there to do it properly rather than wait until it’s “due” and your situation is conflicted.  Always stay ahead of the work curve rather than use that free time to update your Facebook status and figure you’ll get to your work whenever. 

That last minute scramble to get the motion done, no matter how sloppy you think you can get away with, because you need to make it to the bar in time for happy hour, isn’t going to satisfy your firm, and more importantly, isn’t going to fulfill your responsibility to your client.  The worst part is that it might not have needed to happen if you hadn’t squandered your time screwing around so that you had no choice but to mail it in at the last minute.

Lest you think that being a lawyer means a life of misery, where your children don’t know your name and you’re forced to pay full price for chicken wings in perpetuity, it doesn’t have to be so at all. Sure, there will be times, many of them, when responsibility to your clients comes before things you would rather be doing. This can’t be helped, but won’t be nearly as much of a travesty if you have a desire to practice law and serve clients.  But with a whole lot of thinking, planning, organizing and hard work, there will still be plenty of opportunity to enjoy your life, watch most of junior’s soccer games and have a relaxing beer with your barrista friends from law school.  Practicing law isn’t the death of a fun life, but it is a responsibility, no matter what the ABA Law Practice Management section says.