The path of a lawyer’s career may not always follow a traditional track given family and personal obligations. Our lawyers can use alternative work arrangements to create the best match between their personal needs and their professional obligations and development. These arrangements provide our lawyers with flexibility in pursuing their goals of professional growth and advancement while meeting significant obligations outside the office. Several lawyers at the firm were elected to partnership while working part-time or on other alternative work schedules, and many of them continue to use such arrangements. When you interview with us, we welcome requests to introduce you to associates, counsel and partners who have made use of alternative work arrangements.

Work and life balance is a constantly evolving issue. We encourage lawyers at the firm to let us know what types of arrangements would be most suited to them. In many instances, our formal policies evolved from situations in which lawyers simply came to firm leadership and asked to adjust their schedule in a way that worked for them.

Work and life balance rests ultimately not on formal policies, but on an approach to our practice that pays attention every day to how we manage the firm’s work, and that respects the different personal circumstances that we balance with our individual work. Finding the right balance between a challenging professional life and an enriching personal life requires commitment, communication and flexibility from the employee and from the firm. We value our colleagues as the talented individuals that they are and strive to create a collegial and team-oriented environment where everyone feels comfortable that they can be an active member of a family, have a life outside of work and pursue their own professional career path.

Finally, the firm is a more collegial place for everyone when work and life balance is a shared value. The management of the firm has been tremendously supportive of these initiatives, which results in an atmosphere where lawyers can discuss and address work and life balance issues openly and therefore more effectively.

• To care for a newborn or newly adopted child, lawyers may take parental leave for up to 18 weeks paid (total leave up to 12 consecutive months). 
• To care for an immediate family member with a serious illness or injury, a lawyer may take family leave of up to 12 weeks paid (total leave up to 12 consecutive months).
• Our Boston, New York and Washington DC offices offer onsite emergency childcare facilities. Our Denver, Los Angeles, Palo Alto and San Francisco offices offer the use of offsite emergency childcare facilities. For all US offices, WilmerHale offers the Back-Up Care Program, which provides center-based childcare, in-home childcare, and in-home elder and adult care. This program offers 20 back-up visits per dependent per calendar year. In addition to back-up care, WilmerHale also offers parents who are returning from leave the use of our Return-to-Work Program. The program provides 60 consecutive days of infant care at a subsidized rate during a child’s first year. 
• The firm offers onsite lactation/wellness rooms and Milk Stork breast milk shipping program for nursing moms who travel.
• Lawyers may reduce their work schedule by up to 40% and receive pro-rata compensation.
• The firm also provides lawyers with technology that allows them to work effectively without having to come into the office: laptops, mobile phones and remote network access.