Work-Life Balance For In-House Counsel: A Contrarian View

work-life balance

Is work-life balance achievable in the in-house world? Many think of life in-house as green pastures where the workload is less and timing more relaxed. But many find in-house life just as demanding and sometimes even more stressful than life at a large law firm. Working at a law firm creates a buffer to some extent from direct client demands, as lawyers in private practice are external to their clients. In the in-house world, the call is indeed coming “from inside the house”. Having multiple client stakeholders next door to your office or just down the hall is a different world than law firm practice, where attorneys can huddle and muse while they put the final touches on a 50-page memo that ends with an “unequivocal maybe”. In the in-house world, practical answers are needed in real-time and often in direct meetings with business counterparts who are looking for solutions today that can keep the business moving forward.

“Every day another in-house counsel discovers the myth of work-life balance. And you are not alone: “The reality for many of us these days is that our professional lives bleed into our personal lives. . . . We check our emails in the evenings and weekends . We delay or miss family events because we can’t leave the office.  And when we do, we take our communications devices with us so that we can stay connected to work….So do not stray too far from the more traditional approaches to work-life balance, the ones that push back (rather than embrace) the notion that work is life.  Here are few thoughts in that regard…”.

Read: Work-life balance for in-house counsel: a contrarian view at LeadingInhouse