Week in the Life of a Working Mom: BigLaw Lawyer in Los Angeles

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Wednesday

Same home a.m. routine as Monday.
8:30 a.m. Get to work, and deal with more emails about the motion to compel, which will hopefully be resolved via meeting and conferring, and not an opposition. Get sidetracked with another brief.
11:00 a.m. Eat, continue working on brief.
1:30 p.m. Lunch, and then spend the afternoon working on the deposition outline.
6:oo p.m. Head home, and same evening routine. Maybe bathe baby.

Thursday

Same home a.m. routine as Tuesday.
8:30 a.m. Get to work and spend the day working on various briefs and the deposition outline.
5:00 p.m. Turns out we’re not resolving the motion to compel, and I’m told to draft the opposition by EOD Friday. Great. Decide I’m too fried to start it tonight, and focus on finishing my other tasks tonight.
6:30 p.m. Head home, and same evening routine.

Here’s what H had to say when we asked how long she sees herself staying in BigLaw: 

Great question without an answer! Sometimes I really enjoy my job but other times I can’t see myself being a partner. The business development part of being a partner DOES NOT appeal to me. But I’m trying to do more of that stuff and maybe it won’t be so terrible…?

Friday

Same a.m. routine as Monday. Was going to ask husband to do daycare drop-off so I could head in earlier, but he has an unexpected early work call that is right in the middle of drop-off time. Oh well.
8:30 a.m. Arrive to work and start drafting opposition brief. Work straight through the day. I do eat, but while reviewing cases, reviewing evidence, etc.
8:00 p.m. Head home. By some coincidence, baby took a late nap and is still awake when I get home, and he’s happy to see me! Eat dinner, put baby to bed, and crash in anticipation of a firestorm of Saturday emails about the brief.

Saturday

Husband handles early a.m. routine with baby. I wake up and have breakfast and coffee (no IF on the weekends), and mess around online. By some miracle, I receive no emails about the brief all weekend… Anticipate a crazy week, and decide to savor the weekend. Husband gets ready for an annual hang-out with some of his friends.
10:00 a.m. Baby wakes up, and we go to the park with the dog.
12:00 p.m. Husband is gone when we get home close to noon. Try to get baby to nap but he refuses, so give up and decide he’ll sleep while running errands. Go to nursery for compost and impulse-purchase some more plants, then head to Target, and home. Baby naps in fits and starts while out.
4:00 p.m. Persuade baby to sleep for 30 minutes, then play with him until his bedtime.
7:00 p.m. Tired baby goes to bed early. Hustle outside to plant new plants and spread compost before it gets dark. Heat up leftovers and binge Mindhunter (then decide that was a terrible idea while home alone).
10:00 p.m. Husband gets home and we head to bed.

Thanks so much to H for sharing a bit of her life as a working mom! Readers, what’s your biggest takeaway from her week of work as a BigLaw lawyer as well as her general work/life balance?

Stock photo via Deposit Photo / LenblR.