The other half: BigLaw and Business Professionals

I’ve been blogging a lot lately about my career and my health and I am so happy that so many people have reached out from both my recent and distant past. Those who have worked with me in BigLaw immediately get what I am writing about. However, while friends and former colleagues from my “corporate” days understand work stress, I often have to explain the concept of “BigLaw” and how it is different (not worse, just different).

This has created a new stream of thought, which is: What is BigLaw anyway and why do we rarely discuss the impact on the business professionals???

The most interesting difference is the divide between attorneys and business professionals (also referred to as “administrative staff” or worse ye, "non lawyers"), which includes the administrative assistants to the chiefs. Oftentimes “administrative staff” have a different set of benefits and are excluded from firm functions because they are “non-lawyers” (even though many are former lawyers who no longer practice). While almost all of these people have college degrees and years of experience in their chosen fields, oftentimes senior business professionals sit in cubicles, while first year attorneys have offices. I even received gifts for Administrative Professionals Day (aka Secretaries Day).

Having come from corporate America prior to BigLaw, I found this to be bizarre, not very inclusive and frankly, offensive, so for the sake my sanity, I will no longer refer to these people as “non-lawyers” or “admin staff” and will instead use “business professionals” since that is precisely what these professionals are.

So, with that explanation out of the way, I want to focus on the health and well-being of this side of the BigLaw world.  Over the past five or six years there has been an enhanced focus on the mental health and well-being of attorneys and the legal profession. The amazing Patrick Krill has conducted research and published articles on well-being, alcoholism and suicide in the industry. While I was at Paul Hastings, our PH Balanced Initiative that focused on mental, physical, emotional and financial health was our fastest growing initiative and we engaged many experts who provided thoughtful discussions and provided enhanced benefits for attorneys and business professionals, before, during and post Covid.

BigLaw is hard and having this increased focus and enhanced set of tools in the profession have been helpful, but why do we not discuss and acknowledge the stress experienced by the business professionals?

When I was sitting down with my thoughts on this topic, I googled BigLaw and found a 2022 article “What is BigLaw and is it Worth It?” which outlines the salaries of attorneys in BigLaw and what to expect in return. It describes the typical culture in BigLaw. Interestingly, business professionals experience this very same environment, often with a fraction of the salary and none of the prestige and yet, this is rarely discussed or acknowledged. This sentence, in particular, struck me: “Stress management, setting expectations, and self-care are requirements of working in this field. Failing to do so may lead to cognitive burnout. It is not a field for everyone, especially those prone to chronic stress.”

BigLaw is fast paced, has high expectations and is not for the faint of heart. I want to be clear that in the 15 years I worked in BigLaw I built an amazing career and was fortunate to be in a role and at firms that enabled me to highlight the amazing business professionals around me and include them in most of our DEI efforts. Yet, in talking to friends from other firms and in reading what is published (or not published), I realized there continues to be this group of people who sit in silence across firms quietly being impacted by the grind and the toll BigLaw takes on their mental, physical and emotional health, as well as on their families and loved ones. In talking to attorneys or partners at various firms, I have also found that this omission is often not intentional. A law firm is a business and attorneys are their product, so it is natural they would be the focus. But where does this leave the other half of the house?

Unfortunately for many, it leaves us stressed out, burnt out and feeling unseen. Hopefully this blog will help to bring focus to this oversight and create a broader discussion on what it’s like to be “staff” in BigLaw.

To all the BigLaw business professionals out there: I See You.

As I wrote in my last blog, playing with plants and furniture is fun but hearing from my friends from my business life feeds my mind so please reach out - would love to hear from you. :)