Three-quarters of corporate counsel indicated in a recent survey that a major reason they took an in-house position was to gain a healthier balance between personal and profesional lives.  Yet many report high levels of work/life conflict.--Balanced Lives: Changing the Culture of Legal Practice, ABA Commission on Women (2002).

Ninety-eight and a half percent of large law firms in the District of Columbia offer part-time work to their attorneys, yet only 2.6% of partners and only 4.8% of associates in the city work part-time.  --NALP (2001)

Although 98.5% of D.C.'s 130 largest law firms offer part-time arrangements, only 50% of them offer part-time to entry-level associates.  --- NALP Survey

Forty-three percent of part-time attorneys in Massachusetts responding to a survey said their substantive work assignments changed significantly after they went part-time.  "Not surprisingly, lawyers who tire of being ignored, dismissed, or unappreciated either leave their firm for other, more hospitable firms or seek positions outside of the private law firm context.  On the other hand, firms that support part-time lawyers at all levels tend to engender great loyalty from their reduced-hours attorneys and to retain such lawyers for long periods of time.  -- Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts, "More Than Part-Time," Dec. 2000.

More than 90% of women attorneys responding to a Massachusetts survey said that the availability of a reduced-hours schedule affected either their decision to join a firm or their decision to remain employed at a firm.  -- "More Than Part-Time", report of the Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts, Dec. 2000

Shearman & Sterling reported that its attrition rate dropped from 17% in 1998 to 11% in 1999, and it attributed the decrease in large part to its "quality of life" program -- which included reduced hours schedules.

In virtually equal numbers women (68%) and men (66%) find it difficult to balance the demands of work and personal life. But womenís careers are affected in ways menís are not because they make different choices. Thirty-four percent of women have worked part time, compared to 9 percent of men. However, men are beginning to make the same career decisions as women. Forty-five percent of women cite work/life balance as a top reason for selecting their current employer and 34 percent of men agree. -- Catalyst press release, Jan. 30, 2001

An ABA survey shows that 48.6% of associates at large firms nationally work more than 60 hours per week.  An 80% "part-time" schedule at these firms would require working more than 48 hours per week.