Flexible Lawyer Arrangements
Hunton & Williams LLP knows it is important to have a program that allows firm attorneys to provide the highest quality of legal services to our clients while balancing personal demands that may arise. We first established a flexible hours program more than 20 years ago. Today, more than 100 attorneys (10% of our attorneys firm-wide) take advantage of alternative work arrangements.
Our program is gender-neutral and designed to cover a variety of situations, not just family care. There is no pre-set time limit on any arrangement, although each individual program is periodically revisited to make sure it is working well for the client, the firm and the lawyer. Many lawyers participating in the program remain on a partnership track and, in such cases, partnership admissions criteria are the same as generally applied to any lawyer.
Three basic arrangements are available, although there are variations within each:
Reduced Hours Attorneys, who work at least 1,000 billable hours per year, are salaried, receive benefits, and generally are eligible for discretionary performance bonuses and partnership consideration.
Project Lawyers, who typically work fewer than 1,000 billable hours per year, are paid by the hour for billable work, do not receive benefits or bonuses, and are not eligible for partnership consideration.
Staff Attorneys, who generally work 1,800 to 2,000 billable hours per year and whose arrangements vary based on the needs of our clients and attorneys, are eligible for benefits and bonuses, although not for partnership consideration.
In addition to the above general categories, some of our lawyers are Telecommuters, working from home or other remote locations on various schedules.
The firm also provides a Pathways for Success Program, which offers lawyers who wish to take time off from the practice of law to focus on personal demands the opportunity to assume Project Lawyer status for a period of up to five years. During this period, the lawyer, with the approval of his or her team or practice group leaders, may take on discrete projects for the firm if desired, but is not required or expected to do so.
In addition to offering Flexible Work Arrangements, we also provide a variety of programs to support work/life balance, including extended child care leave, paternity and adoption leave for primary caregivers, back-up emergency child and adult care, a concierge service, and programs such as lactation rooms to support mothers who want to return to work, but struggle with the logistical issues involved. We also provide state-of-the art technology to make working at home or while traveling easier, and a variety of additional support services including twenty-four hour access to document processing services and computer and technical assistance.
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"Many law firms like Hunton & Williams that have extremely high standards for client service are not open to considering less than full-time employment for any attorney, no matter how talented he or she may be. As someone who has taken advantage of Hunton & Williams’ reduced-hours arrangement for more than 10 years, I want to say how proud I am to work with a firm that recognizes the value a committed attorney can bring to a firm on a limited hour basis."
-- Heidi Abbott, Counsel, Richmond
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