Infobit: Since 1985, law schools have been graduating classes of new lawyers that are 40% or more female. Yet in 1996, only 14.2% of law firm partners were women, and in 2005, only 17.2% were women. (Note: this figure is for all partners; the number of equity partners is lower.) Source: Catalyst. At this rate of increase, women should make up half of law firm partners by the year 2115.

For past Infobits, check our the Infobit Archive.

Best Practice #11

Respect Personal Time:  Curb Email Use on Weekends

It’s a 24/7 world, where we have Blackberries, text messaging, and instant access to everyone and everything at our fingertips.  Not so long ago you had to be in your office to do work—no longer.  With this new freedom to work anywhere at anytime, attorneys are under more pressure than ever to be accessible and responsive round the clock.  How do you distinguish between an e-mail that can wait until Monday from one that requires your immediate attention in the middle of a dinner out on Friday night? 

What would you think if you received the following message when you logged in for weekend work?  

It's the Weekend. Help reduce weekend mail overload for both you and your colleagues by working off-line in a replica of your mailbox. Firm research has shown if you send a note, recipients will feel compelled to respond so, if actions/responses can wait until the next business day, change your work location to your Remote/Disconnected setting.  This will hold your outbound mail until you change your work location back to In Office.

This is the message professionals at PriceWaterhouseCoopers see the first time they log in on the weekend – a gentle reminder that it is the weekend and that they should be respectful of their colleagues’ personal time.  It reminds the person logging in that although they may not expect colleagues to respond immediately, the recipients of their e-mails may feel compelled to reply immediately. If an email can wait, PriceWaterhouseCoopers urges employees to work offline so that e-mails will not be sent until the workweek resumes on Monday.  According to Kristin Rivera, a partner in the San Francisco office, management undertook this email program because it makes “people feel good” and because it ensures that co-workers are “not bombarded with e-mails on Monday.”

Of course, some emails can’t wait – that’s inevitable.  But most can.  An alternative to the PriceWaterhouseCoopers approach is to require or encourage attorneys who send e-mails over the weekend to include a deadline. If it’s an emergency requiring immediate attention, so be it; if not, at least, the recipient can make an educated decision about whether or not to focus on the matter over the weekend. 

Is your firm using e-mail or other technology to institute work/life balance? Send us an email.

Another E-mail Tip for Respecting Colleagues’ Time:   Cut Down on E-mail Clutter:  Disable the “Reply to All” Option. This practice was also instituted at PWC and cut down on e-mail clutter by at least a third according to one partner.  If a sender wants a group of colleagues to receive a reply e-mail, they have to physically type in all intended recipients.  More often than not, replying to all is unnecessary.  When this option is inconvenient, chances are the e-mails you receive actually require and deserve your personal attention.