Findlaw has a very interesting article on Why are Women — and Generation X and Y Attorneys Generally -Leaving Large Law Firms? The piece is a follow-up to a provocative article in the California Lawyer.
From the article:
On average, almost a fifth of associates (male and female) leave their law firms each year — a record high. Within five years of entering a firm, over three-quarters of associates will depart. The associates who are leaving are disproportionately female…. Unlike the Baby Boomers who preceded them, Generation X and Generation Y women, she says, are less willing to sacrifice the rest of their lives for their careers.
As a Gen Xer myself, I totally concur. While I absolutely love my career as a law librarian, its just one part of my life. I’m also a mom, a wife, and an individual with interests outside my job. But unlike the high pressured attorneys featured in this article, as a law librarian I can have both a rewarding legal career and a life.
I’ve been invited to speak a couple times to our Women’s Law Student Association about careers in law and this is something I always mention. And I’ve talked with others about it, too. In fact, in the last few months, three people in my life have seriously contemplated mid-life career changes to librarianship. I guess librarians aren’t so nerdy after all – or maybe it’s just OK to be nerdy.