asking for part time at a law firm

[Anonymous]

hi all - i've been reading through some of the previous posts on part-timers at law firms, and i know a ton of people here are lawyers so i'd very much appreciate your advice!

my husband and i are planning to start our family in the very near future, but we're just not sure how we're going to do it with our jobs. he is in a different field, but usually works 9-10 hour days with an hour commute (so pretty much away from the house 8 am to 8 pm most days). i work at a mid size law firm, and have more or less the exact same hours and almost the exact same commute (on a good day i MAY make it in 35 minutes, but usually more like 45). i also often have the 'drop everything and do an assignment' thing happening on the weekends without warning.

we've been considering many options, because as we sit now, we could not even begin to do daycare, and quite frankly can't afford a nanny for 12 hours per day - NOR do we have any desire for us to BOTH be away from our children that much! one option is for one of us to stay home, which has its own risks of course.

the other, and the reason i am here, is to consider a part time option for me that would permit me to maybe have one day not in the office, and be leaving the office by 5:00-ish everyday i am there (which would make daycare an option). my problem is that part-time is not really a common occurrence at my firm.

my firm is not huge, and we don't have well-establish plans like the 'big firms' do for this type of things. also, it's not really a matter of people asking for it and getting rejected because only one other woman associate even has a child, and she is a single parent and thus i doubt she was able to consider part time. we do have one counsel who is part time (comes in after the kids are at school, off fridays or mondays).

i just have no idea how to ask for this type of thing without jeopardizing everything about my job. who do you talk to ? what do you say ? do you wait until you are about to give birth, or do you ask as soon as you know you want to switch to part time?

sorry this got so long - i appreciate any advice you have, thank you!