Employers Who Care Who's Minding the Kids
Perspectives, The ABA Journal for Women in the Profession, Winter 2004

At ChildrenFirst, Inc. in downtown Chicago, they’re taking advantage of a quiet day and changing the bulletin board themes. “We have ten children signed up for Friday because schools are closed,” says Constance Wilkerson, regional coordinator for the downtown child care center. Down come the brightly colored fall leaves and up go the colorful “Safety First” cutouts

It’s quiet, too, in the darkened infant’s room where an attendant rocks an infant to sleep while one year old Dylan sleeps in a nearby crib. Down the street at Kirkland and Ellis, Dylan’s mom Gabby Monaghan works on her caseload, secure that her children are in good care.

Last month the day care center where Monaghan’s two children attended closed down abruptly because of a fire in a different part of the building. Fortunately for her, Kirkland and Ellis has a contract with ChildrenFirst, Inc. a Back Up Day Care center that services 260 companies across the country.

“The back up has been wonderful,” says Monaghan. “Without this I your mind would not be 100 percent on the job - you’d be wondering who’s going to take care of my child? It gives me peace of mind that I have someone professional taking care of my kids and they’re happy.”

For the last two decades the numbers of women entering law school and the workforce has steadily increased. Nearly half of law school graduates are women, and Department of Labor statistics show that stay at home moms represent only 13.5 percent of the workforce. Many law firms are recognizing the pressing needs for day care and the far reaching affects that come with it.

Studies suggest that family issues like child care have helped keep that glass ceiling firmly in place. Despite increasing numbers of women in the legal profession, only 15.6 percent of partners are women, according to the National Association of Law Placement. An EEOC study tracking the progress of associates in eight of the largest law firms over ten years and found that men made partnership at twice the rate of women.

“Women still have a disproportionate amount of the responsibility for child care,” says Brooksley Born, retired partner at Arnold and Porter and a member of the Commission on Women in the Profession. Born recently led an initiative that produced a comprehensive guide to providing child care for Legal Employees, Lawyers and Bar Associations. While the increasing numbers of dual income families put pressure on men who must share family responsibilities, “child care issues have a disparate impact on women.” 

Arnold and Porter is one of a growing number of firms like Kirkland and Ellis who have found that providing child care pays off in more ways than one. “Our firm strongly believes that this is a great employee benefit to provide, and that it improves our recruiting ability and retention,” says Born. “It increases productivity, it raises employee morale and we think it is certainly an economic plus for the firm.”

Leveling the Playing Field

“Child care is one of the last big hurdles to overcome to really level the playing field – not just for women in the legal profession but the workforce,” said Barbara Paul Robinson a partner with Debevoise and Plimpton and former president of the American Bar of the City of New York. Robinson pioneered a flex time program in the early 70s, and became the firm’s first woman partner. “This is key not only for professional women but for our society.”

Shortly after her first child was born, Robinson discovered that balancing work and family “was more complicated than I thought.” She managed to arrange a regular schedule and moved to flex time. However, she knew to be considered for partnership she had to return full time.

“I am happy to say that is no longer the case at my firm,” says Robinson. While many women who followed her worked flex time, they didn’t stay. Today, partners include those on a part time schedule. “That made all the difference in the world because part time and flex time people were no longer considered second hand citizens.”

While more firms are establishing flex time policies, researchers argue these “paper policies” often force women to opt out into different jobs or part time positions.

“Huge numbers of women drop out or leave for less high powered jobs or careers after they have children,” says American University Law Professor Joan Williams. “Many, many mothers wanted to continue an active job commitment and found it virtually impossible to do so because of hostile conditions in the workplace.”

While media reports portray professional women “opting out” of the work force, a recent study co-authored by Williams identifies 20 cases over the past five years where women – and sometimes men – sued for discrimination because of family care issues.  

A recent study by Catalyst, a nonprofit research and advisory organization, found that only one-fourth of women surveyed felt they could go on flex time without threatening their careers. The report Women in Law: Making the case investigated the sluggish numbers of senior ranking women in the law profession and found on average women planned to leaving their employers earlier than men.

Robinson points out that women making these choices are aware the odds are against them. “You don’t make choices in a vacuum. Maybe women are leaving because if you’re not investing in them, they’ll find ways to use their talents in other settings.”

Since the workplace is often hostile to fathers who want family time, it’s often the woman who is forced to cut back, says Williams. “It’s not their choice, but as a family they gave up and the mother ended up either staying home or being marginalized into a part time position.”

The growing numbers of women graduating from law school and the desire for law firms to recruit the best and the brightest could turn the tide. “The numbers are starting to get so overwhelming that people can no longer ignore them,” says Anne Weinberg, who directed the Catalyst study.

Setting the Trends

Shortly after Jim Sandman’s first child was born he took six months paternity leave. The day he went back to work, was the “one of the hardest days in my life,” recalls the Managing Partner of the Washington-based Arnold and Porter

Today, Arnold and Porter has a fulltime, onsite day care center for its employees. Since there is a waiting list, the firm also contracts with a local child care center to provide back up care. Last year Arnold and Porter was one of two law firms named in Working Women’s 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers.

“If I had been able to bring my baby to work with me that day to a child care center in the building where the firm was located it would have made a difference to me that I can’t describe,” says Sandman.

While women may bear the brunt of child care responsibilities, men too are feeling the squeeze. The Catalyst study reported that commitment to family was the number one barrier to advancement for men and women.

Work/life benefits are fast becoming a new priority items for law school graduates looking for placement. Williams points out that these students “are far less willing to give up everything on a permanent basis for that brass ring. One of the main things that many students are looking for – men as well as women – is a place where they can have a great job and a great life.”

The recruitment section of Morrison and Foerster’s web site highlights “Balancing Work and Family” and according to HR Manager Kathy Dykstra, their wide range of family friendly policies pays off. “We have a reputation for being aware of peoples’ needs in the work/life area,” says Dykstra. “We hear it all the time in our on-campus recruitment and with the level of interest people have in our company.”

Morrison and Foerster provides a variety of back up services. The California offices provide in-home back up service, while the East Coast offices contract with ChildrenFirst and Lipton’s, another corporate back up consultant.  While their numerous awards have helped recruitment, cost analysis has reassured them the investment paid off.

“Each year we take a look at utilization, and then we look at billable rates and we are able to see that the program really paid for itself, “says Dykstra

When Arnold and Porter evaluated their on-site back up center in 1990 they estimated it saved the firm 2,700 lawyer hours or approximately 450,000. In 2002 the firm attributed a savings of $800,000 to back up child care.

“Our typical client sees a return of $3-4 for every dollar they spend,” says ChildrenFirst President John Marvin. Many start out experimenting in a central office, and soon expand their services to other offices once the savings is realized. “Once they use it they stick with it; it’s very rare we lose a client.” 

ChildrenFirst, Inc. first began when a Boston law firm recognized the difficulties employees were having with child care. After they built a center and contracted ChildrenFirst to run it they invited other law firms in the Boston area to share the space. ChildrenFirst, Inc now serves 260 businesses across the country, and has since worked with several small firms and bar associations to help build consortiums to cover the cost.

The Women’s Law Association of Los Angeles (WLALA) saw it as a tangible benefit, as well as a way to promote women in the profession.  WLALA pulled together 10 firms who worked with ChildrenFirst to split the fee according to size. This allowed members of the bar association to pay a small individual fee and participate as well.

“We knew larger law firms were doing this and we thought it would be great if we could expand that availability to smaller firms, and offer it to our members,”  says Becky Walker, co-chair of WLALA’s Work and Family committee. The consortium worked well until this year when one law firm pulled out due to the poor economy. While they hope to find a new client, some people are already feeling the squeeze.

“My nanny asked for days off well and advance and I thought I would just stay home,” says Ruth Kahn, whose firm Steptoe and Johnson joined the consortium. Kahn helped put together the consortium initially and used it several times for her three year old son Jeremy. Shortly before her nanny was to leave, Kahn was called to a hearing in Nevada. “I had to call my mother in Chicago to see if she could spend a few days with us.”

While Steptoe and Johnson was willing to sign up with Children’s First on their own, Kahn hopes they can pull a new firm into the consortium to restart it.

The Bay Area Child Care Consortium operates in a similar manner contracting with Caregivers on Call, who provide in-home dependent care to six counties in the Bay Area. Employers pay an annual administrative fee and employees register in advance.

Good Business Sense

While some benefits are obvious, others are not as easy to measure. The estimated cost of training a lawyer who leaves for a more conducive working place is can go as high as $80,000 for an entry level associate. Surveys conducted by ChildrenFirst show that 84 percent of those who use the service say the back up child care influenced their decision to stay with the company.

 “It’s not something I thought when I took the job, but it was something that I thought of when I continued on,” says Monaghan, who had her first child eight years after signing on at Kirkland and Ellis. “When you’re just out of law school you’re thinking about what kind of experience you might get and no one’s 100 percent sure you’re going to be there long term. But it was certainly something I considered when I decided to stay here.”

Quarles & Brady, Streich Lang in Phoenix began their child care initiatives in the early 90s. The idea came from a diversity committee that raised the issue of child care. They established a back up center on site staffed by one full time person. The center can only take 4 or 5 children at a time and is used on an emergency basis.

“The financial benefit was not the driver, but it proved a very strong secondary benefit,” says Managing Partner Kent Brady. “We looked at the cost of agency fees for when assistants were out, as well as considering how it allowed attorneys to come in when they otherwise couldn’t, and it didn’t take long to see it was really a cost benefit.”

On a much larger scale, the Department of Justice has a comprehensive child care package for all of its 125,000 employees across the country. But when Renee Wohlenhaus began in the Civil Rights division in 1983 there was nothing. Although she had no children at the time, the trial attorney joined others in a grassroots campaign for child care. “I recognized there were tremendous demands on working mothers - we were all working very long hours and it was clear to me that when I was ready to have kids it was going to be difficult.”

It took several years, but the issue of child care eventually was put on the agenda as part of an initiative to improve employee retention. Twenty years on, the Department of Justice has one of the most comprehensive child care packages in the country with on site child care centers and emergency care for all of its employees. The yearly investment of $1 million pays off with low turnover and a decrease in absentee rates.

Because DOJ employees are spread out over the country with different needs, the department contracts with LifeCare, a dependent care resource and referral service. Employees can call a toll free number, and they’re assigned a Child Care specialist in their area to determine

“We do this not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because it makes us competitive,” says Kathy Oliver, DOJ’s Department Worklife Program Manager.

The Right Thing to Do

Like the DOJ, most successful models start out small and grow. The U.S. military runs the largest federally sponsored child care program in the country, serving 200,000 children in over 300 locations. In 1989 when Congress raised questions about the poor quality of child care for military families, the Defense Department began to invest in and subsidize high quality child care.

 

“From the outset they realized it was an employment issue,” says Nancy Duff Campbell, co-chairman of the National Women’s Law Center. Several years ago the NLWC conducted a study on the military’s child care system to see if lessons could be learned on the civilian side. “They were not going to have people who would complete the mission if they had to worry about child care.”

In ten years, they went from a poor system to becoming a model for the nation with a focus on quality as well as access. Campbell points out the military was willing to make a big investment, but they also saw that high quality day care paid off in many more ways - including recruitment - down the line. 

“What we can learn from the military is that you can start small and build on it, and you don’t have to open up a day care center,” says Campbell.  “There’s a whole range of things employers can do.” 

Other employers are recognizing that child care options as part of their benefit package can be an attractive recruitment tools. Financial Assistance for child care can be made available by providing cafeteria plans which give employees the option to choose child care among a series of benefits. An Employee Reduction Dependent Assistance Plan can give employees the option to reduce their salary by up to $5000 and put it towards child care. The employee does not get taxed on this, and the employer saves in unemployment and social security taxes.

Others offer vouchers, discounts and reimbursements to centers they have contracted with. Still others provide information and referral services, such as Lifeworks.

 

Changing the Culture

Anne Weinberg points out that the average age of a woman graduating from law firms is 28. “If the partner track is eight years, you’re faced with the decision to either start your family or push for partnership.  Firms that think or hope that the majority of women will choose the latter are deluding themselves.”

What Weinberg calls the “canary in the coalmine” is seen by many as a cultural issue. The workforce is changing, but employers have not quite caught up with them.

“I think the change has already begun,” says Williams, whose book “Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and what to do About It” calls for re-defining society’s concept of an ideal worker. “Over the past five years employees are flocking to the best practice environments who are trying very hard to create viable workplace.”

Perhaps that’s why Back up Child Care is the fastest growing trends in the child care industry, says John Marvin. “Law firms are a great example of that because there are more and more women graduating from law firms. There’s more of an awareness of benefits like child care can help them retain their talented people around the time they start to have families.”