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    Wisconsin Lawyer
    April 01, 2004

    Convention Program Stresses the Benefits of Work/Life Balance

    Busy lawyers are people first - with challenging law careers, yes, but also with families and interests outside the law. Programs at this year's State Bar Annual Convention stress the importance to lawyers of balancing their work with the other parts of their lives.

    Dianne Molvig

    Wisconsin LawyerWisconsin Lawyer
    Vol. 77, No. 4, April 2004

    Busy lawyers are people first - with challenging law careers, yes, but also with families and interests outside the law. Programs at this year's State Bar Annual Convention stress the importance to lawyers of balancing their work with the other parts of their lives. On Thursday, May 7, the Flexible Work Options and Gender Equity committees will present a full afternoon on the benefits of achieving balance and suggestions on how to go about it.

    Lawyer Coach Makes the Case for Balance

    Balanced lives can reap rewards not only for individual attorneys - as well as their families, employers, and clients - but also for the legal profession as a whole, says Ellen Ostrow, founder of LawyersLifeCoach.com™ based in Silver Spring, Md. Ostrow, the featured speaker at Thursday's program, will present her session, "Strategic Career Planning & Flexible Work Options." A little later in the afternoon, Ostrow will join a panel of Wisconsin attorneys to discuss putting flexible work options into practice.

    Consider, Ostrow says, that lawyers who experience work/life balance are:

    • Better able to develop their interpersonal skills, which are vital to cultivating and maintaining client relationships, working with colleagues, and mentoring newer lawyers.
    • More available for community service and pro bono activities.
    • Less vulnerable to depression and substance abuse.
    • Less prone to committing ethical missteps that result when stress and anxiety lead to bad decisions.
    • Less likely to slip into uncivil behavior because an overly hectic day and life's other pressures get the best of them.

    The profession is ready, Ostrow notes, "for some completely different assumptions about what it takes to make a good lawyer."

    Updated Flexible Work Options Handbook Debuts

    Balancing Work and Personal Life: Developing Flexible Work Options for Lawyers, a handbook updated for 2004, will debut at Thursday's program. State Bar President George Burnett will unveil the handbook, which will be distributed to attendees via the convention written materials.

    "The committee aimed to present the issues that come up for discussion if you're looking at a leave, an alternative work schedule, or a telecommuting arrangement," says Milwaukee attorney Gwendolyn Connolly, chair of the Bar's Ad Hoc Committee on Flexible Work Options, which revised a 1990 edition of the handbook.

    The update serves as a guide for lawyers seeking flexible work arrangements to enhance work/life balance and for legal employers wishing to offer such benefits. The guidelines presented can be useful in diverse settings: large or small firms, corporate legal departments, government agencies, and other organizations.

    For more information about these or other State Bar Annual Convention programs, or to register, please phone (800) 728-7788.


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