BigLaw refugees turn to NewLaw firms for quality of life

NewLaw is offering innovative business models and better work-iife balance than BigLaw, according to law professor Joan Williams of the University of California at Hastings.

Including large organisations such as Axiom (lawyer to half of Fortune 500) and the 900-lawyer Counsel on Call, these entities are not 'small potatoes', says the professor in an article in the Harvard Business Review. Virtual law firms and entities which let lawyers work from home are among the NewLaw options. 

Hard-baking

Professor Williams says that the work-life balance packages (such as shorter working hours ) on offer in BigLaw is not improving quality of life. She says: 'Typically, the people who use them suffer the worst of both worlds - they’re stigmatized, but find themselves working full time for part-time pay. What New Law offers is what leading researchers now agree is a more promising formula: they hard-bake work-life balance into the business model.' Source: ABA

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