December 18, 2008

Most large law firms have made part-time schedules available to their experienced attorneys for many years, but overall the number of lawyers working part time continues to be very small. In 2008, just 5.6% of attorneys were working part-time and most of them, about 74%, were women. This reflects the fact that women are much more likely to be working part-time than men. Among women attorneys overall, 12.8% work part-time; among female partners, 12.0% are working part-time; and among women associates the figure was 9.7%. This contrasts with a rate of just 2% among all male attorneys. These are among the findings of the most recent analyses of the NALP Directory of Legal Employers, the annual compendium of employer information published by NALP. The 2008-2009 Directory comprises listings from primarily large law firms and includes part-time use information from 1,500 individual law offices and firms and almost 138,000 lawyers.

In 2008, nearly all offices, 98%, allowed part-time schedules, either as an affirmative policy or on a case-by-case basis, but as has been the case since NALP first compiled this information in 1994, very few lawyers are working on a part-time basis, even though the percentage of offices allowing part-time schedules has increased from 86% fourteen years ago. In 1994, just 2.4% of partners and associates were working part-time. By 2008, the number of lawyers working part time has crept up to 5.6%. Likewise, although associates continue to be more likely to be working part-time than partners, part-time work among associates has increased only incrementally, from 4.0% in 1994 to 4.9% in 2008. The growth rate of part-time work among partners has been greater, rising from 1.2% in 1994 to 3.2% in 2008. Other lawyers, such as of counsel and staff attorneys, show the highest rate of part-time work, almost 20%, compared with about 17% in 2006, the first year with comparable information. In 2008, nearly all associates working part-time (90%) are women; among partners working part-time, 69.6% are women. (See Table 1.)

NALP's most recent data also reveal that part-time use varies a great deal by geography. The three largest markets, Chicago, New York City, and Washington, DC, account for one-third of the lawyers reflected in the Directory, and show a sharp dichotomy with respect to part-time lawyers. Part-time partners are more than twice as common in Chicago and Washington, DC, at over 4%, than in New York City, at 1.9%, as are women partners working part-time, at about 16% versus 8%. Part-time associates are also more common in Chicago (5.2%) and Washington, DC (5.6%), compared with New York City (4.2%). About 11% of women associates work part-time in Chicago and Washington, DC, compared with 8.3% in New York City.

Looking at all cities, the presence of part-time partners varies even more. (See Table 2.) For example, part-time partners are most common in Portland, OR, San Diego, and San Francisco, with 6-7% of partners in those cities working part-time. Part-time women partners are most common in Boston, Milwaukee, San Francisco, and Seattle. But in a number of cities, fewer than 1.5% of partners are working part-time, and in 11 cities no male partners at all were reported as working part-time.

Cities also vary with respect to part-time associates, from less than 2% in Birmingham and Orlando, to between 8% and 10% in Cincinnati, Raleigh, Richmond, and Seattle. (See Table 3.) No male associates were reported as working part-time in a number of cities, including Baltimore, Birmingham, Columbus, Denver, Ft. Lauderdale/W. Palm Beach, Hartford, Orlando, and St. Louis. The highest percentages of women associates working part-time were reported in Richmond (20.4%), Raleigh/Durham (17.2%), and Cincinnati (16.4%).

Nine states, or portions of states, not covered by the cities above, had sufficient information for a parallel analysis. Following the national patterns, all had higher percentages of part-time associates than part-time partners. The percentage of partners working part-time was highest in Connecticut outside of Hartford (4.4%); the percentage of women partners working part-time was highest in New Jersey outside of the Newark/Northern New Jersey area (14.6%). Connecticut outside of Hartford also had the highest percentage of part-time associates, at 8.2%, and of women associates working part-time, at 14.1%.

Entry-level lawyers in search of part-time schedules found their options more limited. Nationally, 52% of offices that offered a part-time option precluded entry-level associates from using that arrangement, and just 11% had an affirmative part-time policy that made the option available to all attorneys. Nonetheless, an entry-level lawyer's chances of finding part-time work were somewhat higher in Cincinnati, Columbus, Grand Rapids, Miami, and San Diego. The cities least likely to offer a part-time option to entry-level attorneys were Austin, Richmond, and Orlando.

Part-Time Lawyer Ratios Differ from the Workforce at Large

Interestingly, the lack of part-time lawyers at law firms distinguishes private law firm practice from both the U.S. workforce as a whole and from more defined segments of the workforce. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), about 14% of employed individuals during 2007 usually worked part-time, as did a similar percentage of those employed in professional specialties (e.g., engineers, architects, physicians). These rates contrast markedly with the 5.6% rate among lawyers at major law firms.

Table 1. Part-time Work at Law Firms in 2008 — Summary by Lawyer Type

* Includes counsel/of counsel, staff attorneys, and senior attorneys.
Source: 2008-09 NALP Directory of Legal Employers

Table 2. Part-time Lawyers — Partners at Law Firms — 2008

Source: The 2008-2009 NALP Directory of Legal Employers. For law firms that repeated firm-wide part-time counts for each office listing, counts were retained for just one office to avoid double counting. The number of offices from which use is calculated is shown in the last column. Some city information includes one or more offices in adjacent suburbs. Orange County includes offices in Costa Mesa, Irvine, and Newport Beach. The San Jose area includes offices in Cupertino, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Palo Alto and E. Palo Alto, Redwood Shores/Redwood City, San Jose, and Sunnyvale. The Northern New Jersey/Newark area includes offices in Newark, Madison, Murray Hill, Roseland, West Orange, Florham Park, Hackensack, Morristown, Parsippany, Westfield, Bridgewater, and Woodbridge. Northern Virginia includes offices in Falls Church, McLean/Tysons Corner, Reston, Vienna, and Alexandria. State figures exclude cities reported separately.

Table 3. Part-time Lawyers — Associates at Law Firms — 2008

Source: The 2008-2009 NALP Directory of Legal Employers. For law firms that repeated firm-wide part-time counts for each office listing, counts were retained for just one office to avoid double counting. The number of offices from which use is calculated is shown in the last column. Some city information includes one or more offices in adjacent suburbs. Orange County includes offices in Costa Mesa, Irvine, and Newport Beach. The San Jose area includes offices in Cupertino, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Palo Alto and E. Palo Alto, Redwood Shores/Redwood City, San Jose, and Sunnyvale. The Northern New Jersey/Newark area includes offices in Newark, Madison, Murray Hill, Roseland, West Orange, Florham Park, Hackensack, Morristown, Parsippany, Westfield, Bridgewater, and Woodbridge. Northern Virginia includes offices in Falls Church, McLean/Tysons Corner, Reston, Vienna, and Alexandria. State figures exclude cities reported separately.

Table 4. Availability and Use of Part-time Schedules at Law Firms — 2008

* Percentages are based on all offices and reflect availability either as an affirmative policy or on a case-by-case basis.
** Percentages are based on offices which make part-time work available.
Source: The 2008-2009 NALP Directory of Legal Employers. For law firms that repeated firm-wide part-time counts for each office listing, counts were retained for just one office to avoid double counting. The number of offices from which use is calculated is shown in the last column. Some city information includes one or more offices in adjacent suburbs. Orange County includes offices in Costa Mesa, Irvine, and Newport Beach. The San Jose area includes offices in Cupertino, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Palo Alto and E. Palo Alto, Redwood Shores/Redwood City, San Jose, and Sunnyvale. The Northern New Jersey/Newark area includes offices in Newark, Madison, Murray Hill, Roseland, West Orange, Florham Park, Hackensack, Morristown, Parsippany, Westfield, Bridgewater, and Woodbridge. Northern Virginia includes offices in Falls Church, McLean/Tysons Corner, Reston, Vienna, and Alexandria. State figures exclude cities reported separately.