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.

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2. When an attorney's part-time proposal is approved at my firm,

If a law firm is going to honor its part-time commitment to an attorney, and if a part-time attorney is going to succeed on his or her new schedule, workload must be adjusted to reflect the reduced hours the attorney is available to work. Too often, law firms approve part-time schedules and expect part-time attorneys to do the same amount of work they did as full-time attorneys. The part-time attorneys struggle to meet expectations and, predictably, quit.

As unbelievable as it may seem, answer d applies to some law firms; part-time attorneys have reported having their cases taken away from them and being put on document reviews or given unchallenging legal research assignments.

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