No one really needed to tell the women attorneys at Constangy that they were #1 in the best law firms for female attorneys, but it is nice to get public recognition like we did today in Law360.

Women make up more than 40 percent of law school classes, but comprise only about 35 percent of attorneys in private practice, and only 23 percent of partners. Law360’s 2017 Glass Ceiling ...

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. This annual campaign aims to raise awareness for mental illnesses and break the stigma associated with mental health issues. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 1 in 5 Americans will be affected by a mental illness in their lifetime, and every American is affected through friends and family who have mental illnesses.

Thus, it ...

In the last two weeks, I posted Part 1  and Part 2 of this blog series which discussed what women want from the workplace, why many women are leaving the workforce when it does not accommodate their need for flexibility, the desire for businesses to recruit women, and developing business trends and needs requiring flexibility. This final blog will discuss how the Fair Labor ...

Last week we published Part 1 of How the FLSA Hurts Women which discussed what women want from the workplace, and some reasons why they are leaving the workforce when it does not accommodate their work-life balance needs. In this part, we will be discussing business trends and business needs in general. Part 3 will discuss how the FLSA works against businesses' being able to provide women with attractive work options, thus hurting women and businesses.

What?!  Blasphemy!

Our politicians regularly debate how high the minimum wage should be, and which workers should earn overtime pay, but in my 30+ working years, I cannot recall any significant push to rid ourselves of the nearly untouchable dinosaur known as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Women in particular, however, should take a fresh look ...

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third and final post in the blog series Diary of a Pregnant Lawyer – Pregnancy in the Professional Workplace. The first blogmester is here, and the second is here. Mallory wrote all three installments before she had her baby on December 22.

Welcome to the Third Blogmester! This blogmester feels very near and dear to my heart, because as I ...

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second in the three-trimester blog series Diary of a Pregnant Lawyer – Pregnancy in the Professional Workplace. The first blogmester is here. On December 22 (after she wrote her last "blogmester" post, which we'll publish later this month), Mallory gave birth to Margot Eleanor Ricci. Congratulations, Mallory!

You have survived the first trimester! Many consider the first trimester to be the hardest of the three (I respectfully disagree and will elaborate more in the upcoming Third Blogmester post).

If you spent the first trimester escaping to your office for 30-minute power naps, escaping to the bathroom for vomit sessions, or escaping to the fridge for some craving-satisfying snacks, things may be looking a little better for you now.

Unless you’re like me, and the fun times are rolling for a little while longer.

In any event, this second 12-week period is considered to be the easiest. But that doesn't mean the second trimester doesn't come without issues, some of which involve the place where professional women spend the majority of their time – work!

Let’s read about some other practicing attorneys’ experiences during the middle of their pregnancy and see if this trimester is as uneventful as it seems . . .

"I was six months pregnant with my first child, and huge. I was at a hearing in the judge’s chambers. Opposing counsel asked when I was due, and I said in three months. The male judge looked at me in amazement and said 'are you expecting twins?' I said 'no,' and he was hugely embarrassed. Needless to say, I won the hearing."

"I may be one of the only women who HATED being pregnant. (Or at least one of the only ones to admit it.) I was grouchy, to say the least. However, with that grouchiness came a positive. For approximately 25 weeks (after I went public in the office), I reveled in the fact that the men completely left me alone. I got more work done those 25 weeks because our male dominated office at the time treated me like I had the plague. It wasn’t mean--it was for their own safety and self-preservation. I was spared the hour-long football story distractions and petty arguments that come along with practicing law with an office full of brilliant A-type personalities. My partners also took advantage of my 'grouchiness.' I was the one who was always picked to have the controversial phone calls with opposing counsel (also men). It was a great way for me to vent my irritation--and useful, too, because we were preparing for trial all that summer with a very difficult opposing counsel. Needless to say--I usually got my way, and my husband enjoyed the fact that I was a little nicer at home!"

"While I was pregnant, opposing counsel was pregnant, too. Under the state rule, the duration of a deposition is severely limited, and I ended up having to ask the Court for additional time because of the number of bathroom breaks that my opponent took. She opposed the motion, but I was granted the additional time."

Being pregnant can be hard. Working while pregnant can be really hard. Practicing law while pregnant can be hard, really hard, and more.

As I sit here I am well into the third trimester of my first pregnancy. While typing this introduction, I have had to “go” three times, and I have my feet propped up on two unused computer bags under my desk because by the end of the day my feet look like ...

I do not consider myself to be a confrontational person.  Maybe that sounds like a paradox coming from a lawyer, but I suspect I may not be the only one in my profession who feels this way. To me, making persuasive legal arguments is fun, but getting yelled at or antagonized by a not-so-nice opposing counsel really stresses me out.

I get that this is often the goal of these sorts of tactics ...

During college, law school and the first few years of my practice, I never gave much (ok, any) thought to taking a break from work.  I was too focused on developing a career. Planning to not work – apart from the very distant notion of retiring someday - never really dawned on me.  In the abstract, I had formed a belief that being a professional woman would somehow provide me with options if and ...