Last Monday, the Delaware Supreme Court announced that it would push back filing deadlines in non-expedited cases from 11:59 p.m. to 5 p.m. in an effort to address work-life balance in the profession reports Delaware Law Weekly. Though no doubt well-intentioned, the change makes life harder rather than easier for women lawyers because there’s no such thing as one size fits all when it comes to work-life balance.

Back when my daughters were young, my work schedule revolved around theirs. That meant that unless I had a trial or a full day of depositions, I’d typically work for the five or six hours that they were in school. But once my husband arrived home to take over, I’d often return to my desk to burn the midnight oil from 9 p.m. until 1 a.m. Though to many, my hours made me seem like a workaholic, from my vantage point, working nights allowed me to put in an 8 hour day without missing out on time with my daughters. In other words, I felt that I’d found an ideal work-life balance… for me.

A 5 p.m. filing deadline would have upset my delicate work-life balance — forcing me to find after-school child care, or to rush to finish a filing before racing out for a 2:30 pick up. Midnight filings were more compatible with my schedule – and indeed, I availed myself of those late night filings on multiple occasions.

At a time when technology enables us to pick and choose our own hours, imposing filing deadline that assumes that 5 p.m. marks the end of the workday is a step backward. Work-life balance is best served by maximizing flexibility, not curtailing it.