Taking the Part-Time Option

Some 98 percent of American firms allow for part-time schedules, but just 5.6 percent of all lawyers make use of that option, according to the National Association for Law Placement (NALP). And among attorneys who do, 74 percent are women.

But in much of California, male attorneys are, on average, more likely to work part time than they are nationally. Across the United States, 1.2 percent of male partners and .9 percent of male associates at law firms are part-timers. But in San Diego, for example, 3.6 percent of male partners and 1.4 percent of male associates work part time (the figures for San Francisco are 3 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively). More of the Orange County area's female associates work part time (13.9 percent) than in other parts of the state, but San Francisco is tops in part-timers among female partners (17.4 percent).

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