Biglaw

Yes, Even Biglaw Partners Stare Into The Abyss Sometimes

Who ever said work/life balance was going to be easy?

By  
on

No one ever said balancing a high-powered legal career at a Biglaw firm with an actual personal life was going to be easy. The challenges are only magnified if you are responsible for the health and well-being of three tiny humans.

Capturing the universality of this struggle is the beauty of the CorporetteMoms series “Week in the Life of a Working Mom.” This week’s offering is the experience of a Biglaw litigation partner (“R”) in the Midwest who has three kids — twin 9 year olds and a 3 year old. And to be honest, for most of the week R seems to be cruising. Sure, it’s stressful and there are a lot of things to be done, but R’s hours seem… dare I say it, reasonable — she is even able to make time to attend her kids’ extracurriculars.

Things are going along just swimmingly until Thursday. That’s when a stomach bug hits the toddler and you just know mom’s day is going to be a wreck. It’s oddly comforting knowing the work of a partner suffers when their home life is in upheaval. Just check out how productive R was that day:

6:30 a.m. Alarm goes off. Was I asleep? Who knows. Even my dreams are of vomit and exhaustion. I was supposed to get up at 5:00 and go to the gym for strength training, but that ship sailed around the fourth vomiting episode at 4:00 a.m. (Really, it sailed with the first, but who’s counting?) Husband and I engage in brief negotiation about whether we can take shifts. He has a proposal to get out and wants me to stay home in the morning. I have a 9:30 call and a 2:00 meeting, so I offer late afternoon. As usual, my job wins. I always try to stay home when I can, because it’s rare that I can. But I’m 4/5 of our household income, so this is a choice we both agree with.
7:45 a.m. I leave for work. Husband will get the older kids on the bus as usual and stay home with the youngest. I stop for the biggest coffee Dunkin’ Donuts sells, and two donuts, because I’ve given up hope for the day.
8:30 a.m. Arrive at work. Drink coffee and stare into the abyss like a zombie. Try to prepare for 9:30 call.
9:30 a.m.–10:30 a.m. Call.
10:30 a.m.–11:30 a.m. Stare into the abyss.
11:30 a.m. Go with coworker to grab Subway, which I eat at my desk while staring into the abyss.
2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m. Attend a webinar.
3:00 p.m. Leave office. My husband has figured out his proposal, but the youngest is still sick and can’t leave the house, so I’m on evening extracurricular duty.
3:45 p.m. Arrive home and assess pitiful situation on the sick child front.
4:15 p.m. Pick up son from bus, take him home to get ready for soccer.
5:00 p.m. Pick up older daughter from after-school STEM program.
5:30 p.m.–6:30 p.m. Soccer practice; sit in chair and watch practice while daughter reads book.
6:30 p.m.–7:00 p.m Drive home; talk to kids about school.
7:00 p.m. Eat dinner while husband puts pitiful youngest to bed.
7:30 p.m. Head to family room where husband and kids play video games. My brain is mush, so I just watch them and play games on my phone.

See, Biglaw partners — they’re just like us.

headshotKathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

Sponsored

Topics

, ,