Home Court Advantage : More Female Lawyers in O.C. Go Part Time by Telecommuting

Twice a week, Margaret Miglietta commutes 40 minutes to an office she shares with two others. The rest of the week, the mother of three works from her Mission Viejo home, which has three phone lines that link her computer, fax machine and telephone to her law firm in Irvine.

Her office mate, Areta Gutherey, swings by the office three or four days a week and works until midafternoon. Then she heads home to take care of her 5-month-old daughter, Aleta Christina. After dinner, she puts in more hours in front of her home computer.

Both women are part-time attorneys at Berger, Kahn, a mid-size Irvine firm that is on the cutting edge of a slow but growing trend in the legal profession. As more women become lawyers and mothers, their desire to balance family and career are prompting more firms to offer part-time work, flextime and telecommuting.

Berger, Kahn has 46 lawyers in Orange County. Of those, 20 are women and seven of them work part time, either at the office or at home, or a little of both.

Still, Brenda Martin, executive director of the Orange County Women Lawyers Assn., said firms aren’t rushing to embrace the concept of part-time lawyers.

“The problem is, men still cling to the feeling it’s not the way we do it . . . that women will lose interest if they’re not here full time,” she said.

A recent survey by the National Assn. for Law Placement found that less than 3% of attorneys nationally work part time. But 14% of all professionals were working part time in 1994, according to the Labor Department. Similarly, there’s been no boomlet in telecommuting by lawyers.

With women making up an increasing number of new law students and entrants in the field, however, the pace of change is certain to quicken. Surveys suggest California is already well ahead of the curve, and firms such as Berger, Kahn are showing that unorthodox work schedules aren’t causing problems that many feared.

“I was worried some clients might think that ‘part time’ means, ‘I don’t really like lawyering but I’ll do it when I can around my family,’ ” said Craig Simon, managing partner at the firm, whose full name is Berger, Kahn, Shafton, Moss, Figler, Simon & Gladstone.

But Simon, 42, said that hasn’t been a problem. The firm’s part-time lawyers are just as committed to their work as others, he said, and they don’t balk at putting in extra hours during crunch time. He added that clients have the same quick access to lawyers, whether they are working at the office or at their homes, because of the telephone linkups.

“Most of this is imperceptible to the clients,” he said.

Berger, Kahn, a 21-year-old firm with another major office in Marina del Rey, specializes in work for insurance and entertainment companies. Its clients include insurers State Farm and Farmers. The firm has 80 attorneys in all and its annual billings reach about $20 million.

As with other firms, Berger, Kahn has a good reason to offer modified work hours--keeping talented workers. And because of its large size, Berger, Kahn was better able to embrace these changes. The firm has plenty of litigation attorneys, so those who work part time can do research and other work that doesn’t require them to be in court or the office as much.

That’s not a luxury many small firms have.

Andrea Gee, 33, said she used to work part time at Ferruzzo & Ferruzzo in Santa Ana. “They were very receptive to it, and I loved that job,” said Gee, who has a 2-year-old son, Taylor. But Gee said she felt awkward working part time when there was so much work at the firm and not enough lawyers to attend to it. Last month she left Ferruzzo and went into practice alone in Santa Ana, where “I can control my hours.”

Berger, Kahn began to consider different work arrangements in 1991 when 10 of the lawyers and support staff had children, Simon said. The firm’s relaxed, informal work atmosphere--dress-down day is everyday and there are no diplomas on the walls--helped ease the transition.

Sara Trask, 35, joined Berger, Kahn in Irvine as an associate straight from law school in 1986. She was on the partnership track until January 1993, when her first child was born. Since then, she has been working part time Monday through Thursday, with Fridays off.

When Trask made the switch to half time, she naturally gave up half of her salary. But she also lost her health benefits and had to give up her corner office. For Trask, that was still a small price for the extra time she got to spend with the two children she now has.

How long will she work part time? “Forever,” she said.

Berger, Kahn’s Orange County office has 17 partners. All of them are full-time attorneys, and all but three are men.

That more women and some part-time lawyers aren’t partners have raised concerns among some of the firm’s attorneys. Simon, the managing partner, said there’s no question it’s harder for a part-time attorney to make partnership, which usually takes six to eight years.

“Women are more likely after several years of working to raise a family over full-time careers,” Simon said. But he added that he expects more female lawyers, part-timers included, to be become partners.

Miglietta, 37, said she’s hopeful that she will attain partnership someday, but she’s in no hurry. With three children, ages 6, 3 and 1, she shuts the door to her den when she works. But on her breaks, she has lunch with her children and takes them to the library. She’s told her nanny to interrupt when her 1-year-old takes her first step.

“Quite frankly, being a mother is just so wonderful, it puts life in perspective,” Miglietta said. “My career will come. I can develop and resume my career once my children don’t need me as much. So right now, not to be a partner doesn’t bother me one iota.”