Anonymous wrote:A non profit association with no litigation or lobbying job duties.

Professor

Barbri instructor

Professor? Lol. Likelihood of getting tenure track professor gig without a clerkship is nil.

I mean this is as nicely as possible, but why did you sink the time and money into law school when you just want a basic 8-4 job on the mommy track? There are plenty of female lawyers who have jobs with WLB, but as you can see from the posts above we didn’t just step into those positions. You have to put your time in and become valuable enough, or gain enough experience with a particular agency/area of law, to downshift without taking a hit. I’m sure you wouldn’t put it this way, but this just comes across as you asking how to do the least amount of work possible, which is a mindset tolerated in senior staff sometimes but definitely not in junior staff that just started their career.

Oh, you're going to be entry level? Then do fed gov agency that offers teleworking. But not a position with any case quota, that's not a 40 hr/week job.

A non profit association with no litigation or lobbying job duties.

Professor

Barbri instructor

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does primary parent mean?

I used to be in the federal government and found it to be super micro-managey and not at all conducive to a flex schedule required. And at entry level you have to accrue leave which can take a while so that you can take time off. But still as an entry level all leave has to be approved usually.

Maybe things have changed post-pandemic but YMMV.

OP here. Spouse works long hours with occasional travel, don’t have family in the area. So looking for something ideally compatible with school pick-up and drop-off, staying home with sick kids, etc.

This is not going to happen your first year at any job, let alone your first year out of law school. I would advice OP to get into a transactional practice at a big firm for 2 years then move on to the unicorn job she's searching for, which may actually exist after she's worked in big law for a few years. I have a great job in the law with time for pick-ups, drop-offs, and staying home with sick kids, but I worked very hard for 10 years to get to this point.

I’m one of the PPs who is agency counsel and - within reason - this is doable if she were to get a job in my office. She is still going to need to work an 8.5 hr day, so she would need childcare and aftercare for younger school age kids but you could easily typically work 8:00-4:30 for example, and we are now at home 4 days/week (big change from when my own kids were young). There is no stigma in terms of taking leave for sick kids, kid activities and doctors appts, especially if one is conscientious and stays on top of their work. School pickups on the middle of the day aren’t happening.

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I think you need to prepare yourself that you are not going to be able to be a first year attorney and be doing school pick ups and drop offs and have that much flexibility. You have zero experience. Attorneys work hard at the beginning of their career, regardless of whether they are a public defender or at a big law firm. You have to earn the right to be trusted to do your own thing after you’ve carved out expertise. I seriously think this is a troll post because I can’t imagine a 3L would be asking this type of question.

+1. If you have specialized experience in a field from your time prior to law school you may be able to draw on that, which could help you. If you want to be a lawyer, consider hiring a nanny. And not to be snarky, but to find a unicorn it helps be a unicorn.

DP. For those of you who are experienced, regulatory attorneys at agencies, is your job mostly to be available for consultation? Or, do you have regular or frequent deliverables too? I’m particularly interested in work at the federal banking and consumer agencies.

Who goes to law school when they have young kids at home and a traveling spouse and expects to land a mommy job as their first gig? Sounds like very poor research and judgment. I’m not buying the legal skills she’s selling.

Anonymous wrote:Yup, federal government attorneys are the best paid, least working bunch around. Score the right agency and you can WFH, pick up your kids, play with them, snooze with them, and then clock out. After they grow up, you’ll have a pension, and you can lunch and snooze some more.

This will be true eventually but you still need to accept that your first year or two in your job you are going to need reliable after school childcare and/or your husband to share the parenting load. You may have calls at pick up or drop off time and as a first year attorney, you don’t get to call the shots on when those are scheduled. Also, you literally are learning every single thing. Something that takes a more experienced lawyer an hour to do might take you three of four. Law school teaches you nothing about actually practicing law. And that’s true regardless of what type of law you practice.

Anonymous wrote:In house job at a Trade association

This is not a job you get straight out of law school

Yup, federal government attorneys are the best paid, least working bunch around. Score the right agency and you can WFH, pick up your kids, play with them, snooze with them, and then clock out. After they grow up, you’ll have a pension, and you can lunch and snooze some more.

I agree with all those who have recommended government, regulatory practice, and as a fallback trusts and estates. I did the BigLaw to government route in a regulatory field, and a lot of my coworkers were honors attorneys or PMFs. I also have former colleagues doing non-lawyer "JD preferred" jobs in government. No agency I've worked at hires entry level outside their honors program, but I believe PPs who say it happens.

The thing is, most people don't have school-aged kids when they come out of law school. So your competition for hiring and retention is going to be people who don't need that flexibility.

This is not the relationship forum but IMO you need to have a frank talk with your spouse about what the plan is here. Why did you go to law school? How little can you afford to be paid? Can you afford to take a junior associate role at a sleepy small firm, maybe eventually hang out your own shingle? Is that what you want?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a little late for honors attorney programs. I would look at USAjobs to see if there are any still accepting applications. I would expect the programs to convert the honors attorneys to career positions so long as the attorney works hard. Not crazy hours (assuming not litigation) but not mailing it in.

When you say you are highly credentialed what does that mean? Do you have an area of focus? Have you interned or worked during your summers? Do you have a job but are looking for something more family friendly?

Fancy law school + reasonably good grades, nothing super special. Was going to pursue clerkships originally so did the things to be a candidate for that, decided against it due to WLB.

Huh? A clerkship for a good judge offers one of the best work life balances in all of law. Incredibly predictable hours, little (or if not on a COA, none) travel, and few emergencies.

+1 But too late now, most likely.

In any event, OP, make sure you avoid trial litigation at all costs. If you like litigation, focus on appellate work as it's far more predictable. Discovery is the bane of all work-life balance.

What are you interested in? If you look at federal government, there are always jobs for FOIA experts - attorney positions or non-attorney positions in which a law degree is an asset. A lot of people loathe FOIA, it's basically document review, but it sure is steady employment and depending on where you are the hours may be very predictable/reasonable and possible to do it remotely. But it may be hard to step into another field down the road because the experience is so specific.

If you like employment stuff, do not take an agency litigation position, but look into agency EEO offices where you could do investigations or write decisions on discrimination claims for the agency.

Law firms may have staff attorneys who again basically do document review - the hours may be more reasonable than associate hours. If your primary goal is flexibility, don't go into Biglaw as an associate.

There's a lot of different entry-level stuff out there. I would generally look at government (federal, state, local, whatever) over private practice if you need to prioritize work-life balance. What are your interests in the law - or areas you hate?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go through an agency honor’s program if you haven’t graduated yet.

OP here. Should have clarified this in the original post, I’m currently in law school. So looking for family-friendly first year attorney jobs. Ideally 40ish hrs/week, no travel, good telework, flextime options. I’ll definitely look into honors, but wasn’t sure how often it converts to a permanent position. Definitely looking for something with job security.

You are looking for a unicorn.

I have this unicorn but I am in a highly specialized position that I worked 15 years for. I started as a JD PMF, OP.

Same. I have this unicorn job but I am in a high-demand field that I got in on the ground floor on and am one of few experts at my level. You can maybe get a gov job, although flextime varies a lot by agency and the work won't necessarily be interesting if you really only want 40 hrs/week. Being a contract attorney would also totally work on being flexible, no travel, etc., but the pay isn't great, it's boring and not a lot of job security.

I also have this unicorn job, but I put in nearly 15 years of grind to get here, working long hours in BigLaw in a specialized regulatory area for 7-8 years, then switching to in house and diligently working my way up for years. It’s great now but I never would have gotten this position straight out of law school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a little late for honors attorney programs. I would look at USAjobs to see if there are any still accepting applications. I would expect the programs to convert the honors attorneys to career positions so long as the attorney works hard. Not crazy hours (assuming not litigation) but not mailing it in.

When you say you are highly credentialed what does that mean? Do you have an area of focus? Have you interned or worked during your summers? Do you have a job but are looking for something more family friendly?

Fancy law school + reasonably good grades, nothing super special. Was going to pursue clerkships originally so did the things to be a candidate for that, decided against it due to WLB.

Huh? A clerkship for a good judge offers one of the best work life balances in all of law. Incredibly predictable hours, little (or if not on a COA, none) travel, and few emergencies.