By Ertel Berry
Legal Editor
Achieving a balance between professional and personal life isn't just a goal for attorneys at Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, P.A. — it's an expectation, according to the Charlotte and Rock Hill, S.C. firm's Web site.
"Any lawyer must do whatever is necessary to help a client solve a problem or complete a project, so daily or weekly schedules are difficult to control," the Web site states. "But over time, our lawyers are expected to have time to devote to their families and friends, to community service, and to their personal interests.
"If client demands are preventing that from happening, we rearrange responsibilities to help the lawyer find the right balance."
That individualized approach for partners and associates alike earned the 115-plus-attorney firm a 2005 Balanced Life Workplace Award from the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys.
Other recipients were the Law Office of Faith Herndon in Durham for small firms, and Allen and Pinnix, P.A. in Raleigh for medium-size firms.
The absence of a billable-hour requirement at Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, coupled with flexible schedules, part-time work, sabbaticals, and generous maternity and paternity leave, were key factors cited in the nomination letter submitted by Amy Johnson, a partner who focuses on public finance issues. 
"I had practiced at RBH for just three years when my daughter was born," Johnson said. "Before my return from a 14-week maternity leave, I proposed a four-day per week schedule, which the firm's board of directors approved.
"Yes, I took a pay cut," said Johnson. "And yes, client demands mean I have to remain flexible, but the schedule has worked for me for over six years now. The firm has responded with continued support, even elevating me to partner at the same time as other attorneys who started at RBH in 1995."
Johnson is one of 11 female partners at RBH. The firm has numerous practice areas including corporate, securities, banking, real estate, commercial litigation and public finance.
All female partners are equity stakeholders since the firm doesn't have income partners. Four work some form of reduced schedule, while another works full-time almost exclusively from her home in Charlotte, according to Johnson.
"We have not been required to satisfy a 'one size fits all' policy," Johnson said. "For example, one woman partner likes to leave work early each day to pick up her children from elementary school while I prefer to be home on Fridays."
Client acceptance of Johnson's reduced schedule has been good — perhaps because more clients are trying to achieve a similar work-life balance.
"I've seen in the last few years that clients are also juggling more," Johnson said. "They call me and I can hear a kid in the background, or they're calling me from a soccer game to tell me they forgot something. As clients themselves have evolved, they're more accepting of me calling them from a playground if I have to."
Technology has helped make Johnson's type of schedule "a bit easier," she told Lawyers Weekly.
"I have a Blackberry that I take home on Fridays, and voice mail comes in as e-mail so I don't have to check that independently," she said. "That's something that was not available five years ago. Clients become a little bit more comfortable once they know that they can get me if its an emergency.
"The flip side is that it can be a curse because people expect you to respond to e-mails immediately because they're used to that," Johnson said.
Johnson's practice in public finance also makes a reduced schedule easier to implement.
"Government constraints limit how fast a deal can be done," she said. "You can't plan a deal one Friday and have it close the next Friday. Public finance deals usually have a life span of at least six weeks. In traditional financing, I think some have lifespans that are considerably shorter."
Trust and estates work is another practice area that lends itself to a reduced or part-time schedule, according to RBH managing partner Robert Griffin.
"It may be easier for somebody whose work comes in discrete lumps, particularly if the lumps are smaller and not especially time sensitive," he said.
No Billable Hours
According to a 2004 survey by the NCBA's Young Lawyer Division, "an employment culture supportive of fewer billable hours" was tied as the top factor that respondents said would improve their work-life balance.
Robinson, Bradshaw and Hinson doesn't have billable hour quotas, or origination credits, "nor do we publish or review hours totals for our lawyers," the RBH Web site states. "We want our lawyers to focus on solving problems completing projects, not on accumulating 'hours.'"
"We've always been that way," Griffin said. "Our decision to do that was not really a decision based on lifestyle issues or anything other than what's best for the client. We thought we could do a better job of client service, of getting the right work to the right person and being sure that nobody was doing work they ought not to be doing, by not measuring each other based on how many hours somebody wrote down."
According to Johnson, "The firm manages itself on a much more subjective basis that depends on collegiality, mutual trust, and each lawyer's annual reviews of the other lawyers in the firm. We maintain this system because we believe it is best for our clients but by experience we know the system also results in happier lawyers."
That approach doesn't mean the firm is oblivious to attorney hours, Griffin said.
"You certainly become aware over time that some people are, for whatever reasons, devoting more time to the practice than others," he said. "That's a fair thing to take account of in compensation but that doesn't mean it's the only thing."
A long-term subjective evaluation is a better measure of value to the firm, he said.
However, the absence of hourly quotas does raise one hurdle in setting up a flexible schedule, according to Griffin.
"If you have a firm where 'full-time' has a specific numerical meaning, 1,900 hours a year or whatever the quota is, then it becomes easier for people to conceive of and calculate what a reduced portion of that is supposed to be," he said. "It's harder here because there isn't a numerical definition of full-time.
"So it becomes an extra challenge, both for people like Amy and for other people, who naturally want to feel that a reduced schedule is fair to everybody. You need to have some trust in figuring how you can make it work out in the long run."
Size Cuts Two Ways
Robinson Bradshaw's size makes it easier in some ways — and harder in others — to accommodate flexible work arrangements, according to Griffin, who joined the firm in 1978 when it had just 18 lawyers.
"In some ways, with a larger firm somebody's absence or reduced schedule has less of a percentage effect on what you're able to do," he said. "On the other hand, if three friends have a firm, it's easier for them to look at things from a long-term perspective because they know each other so well. They can have a stronger confidence in people's integrity and work ethic. That makes it conducive to working out these arrangements.
"When you're a big firm, you don't know each other as well," Griffin said. "There's an understandable desire not to rely on personal knowledge and trust and instead rely on numbers and mechanical sorts of things.
"We've resisted that," he said. "Recruits ask me, 'Can you keep doing what you do as you get bigger?' I really think the similarities between us now and when we started are much more fundamental and important than the differences. We're trying very hard to remember, it's just us trying to have the kind of firm we want to have. To do that we've tried to continually adapt as we've grown."
Other Factors
Johnson's nomination letter to the NCAWA also cites these factors as promoting a better quality of life for RBH lawyers.
Maternity, paternity leave. Female attorneys at RBH get a minimum of eight weeks paid disability leave if they have a baby. Because all new parents also get two weeks of paid parental leave, new moms receive a total of 10 weeks paid maternity leave. Attorneys can take additional unpaid time, not to exceed six months.
Male attorneys at RBH "feel comfortable utilizing their parental leave benefit," Johnson said. "Last year, one male associate took five weeks unpaid leave in addition to his paid parental leave."
Said Griffin: "We don't count up the hours but I think people generally take it."
Profit-sharing. Under its profit-sharing plan, RBH makes a minimum contribution each year that equals three percent of a participant's pay. Since adoption of the plan, the firm's board of directors has elected to up the contribution to 10 percent, according to Johnson.
Attorneys are eligible after they have completed one year of work and have been credited with at least 1,000 hours of work during that period.
Free dependent health coverage. Attorneys who work more than 30 hours per week get dependent coverage at no cost under the RBH self-insured medical benefit plan, according to Johnson.
Sabbaticals. In addition to regular vacation, shareholders in the firm are eligible for sabbatical leave up to 15 days.
Senior care advice. A senior care consultant is available to help RBH employees with elder care concerns.
Pro bono, public service. "RBH energizes its lawyers to participate in pro bono service," Johnson states in her letter. "In 2004 RBH received the North Carolina Bar Association's Large Firm Pro Bono Award. RBH was the first law firm in the country to receive the ABA's Pro Bono Publico Award."
All of the firm's major practice areas are involved in pro bono legal service, Johnson said. For instance, one group represents domestic violence victims in 50-B hearings. Another handled all the legal work setting up a Children and Family Services Center in uptown Charlotte.
The firm's lawyers also have a strong tradition in civic activities, serving on the boards of a wide range of charitable, professional and community groups. Among them: Alexander Children's Center; The Duke Endowment; The Foundation Fighting Blindness; and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
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September 26, 2005
