Cadwalader Associate Among Those Bucking Trend, Having a Baby Before 30

Work/Life Balance

Cadwalader Associate Among Those Bucking Trend, Having a Baby Before 30

Posted Jan 16, 2008, 08:31 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

College grads living in metropolitan areas who decide to have children before the age of 30 are bucking the demographic trend. That leaves the women who decide to have babies feeling alone and out of the mainstream, the Washington Post reports.

In metro areas, the percentage of college graduates between the ages of 25 and 29 who have children is 13 percent for men and 31 percent for women, according to the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. Women who are college grads usually have their first child at about the age of 30, reports the National Center for Health Statistics.

Among those who decided not to put off children is 28-year-old associate Erin Foley Lewis of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, who has twins.

"By the time I'm at a point in my career where I am going to be making partner, my kids are going to be old enough to be playing on their own and sleeping on their own," Lewis told the newspaper. "If I had waited until 33 to have children, I'd have newborns at the time I would be up for partner."

Another young mother is 28-year-old law student Amy Elliott, who attends George Washington University. “When I walk up to the day care with Emmett, I always feel like they are looking at me and thinking, 'Oh, she's the babysitter dropping off the kid, or whatever,' " she said.

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Posted by The Ax - 10 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 12 hours, 19 minutes ago

Maybe that is why they are firing all of their associates!
Posted by mike hunt - 10 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 11 hours, 38 minutes ago

Hey, we all go with our best option. These babes obviously found something more stimulating than work, so what’s the big deal if they popped the condom—hubby didn’t know and this way, they can do what they want to a few years earlier, and not have to kow-tow to some 55 year old balding partner who think his poop don’t stink! I agree with these women—go for the gusto while you can, and if it aint there, start the breeding while youre still young enough. I wonder if these people will ever go back into the job market. My guess is these women were not on any partnership track, and will probably wind up taking a government job, making a lot less money ,but working 9-5 and having more time for themselves. Hurray for them!
Posted by Jeff - 10 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 11 hours, 2 minutes ago

I love the notion that she is really making the smart move by doing this now, so “when she is a partner” the kids will be older and more self-sufficient. Uh, didn’t you get the speech on your first day as a new associate? “Look to your left, look to your right - none of you are likely to make partner here or anywhere else. We’d rather keep the profits for ourselves and train someone cheaper and younger to take your place.“

Oh, that’s right, they don’t give that speech. Maybe they should. I thought everyone already know this, but apparently not this brainiac.

Enjoy watching your kids grow up on webcam as you bounce from one dead-end BIGLAW associate job to another. I feel sorry for them.
Posted by Wife and Mom of two - 10 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 9 hours, 52 minutes ago

I had my first child in undergrad (21yrs) and second in lawschool (24 yrs)....I basically stayed at home with each of them during their first two years (breastfeeding throughout!!) leaving for a few hours here and there for class. Now that I’m up for the BIGLAW associate job I think having my family situation settled is a plus. Juggling these responsibilities is not easy in any field. But its worth it. Having kids at a young age can teach you to prioritize and balance early on. How many law students did I meet who already decided that they could “never” do two things at once like I did?? Does that mean when there 33 and have there first child they will drop “out of circulation” and leave work?? That seems to be very common. I’ve already learned that I can have my cake and eat it too and I think it has been the best decision of my life. Don’t feel sorry for my girls, a strong female role model is worth a lot in my book.
Posted by H.V. Baxendale - 10 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 9 hours, 9 minutes ago

Though happy for the women having babies, how sad for the rest of them—deferring one of the most important, fulfilling and joyful of life’s experience due to unearthly work pressures. Of course, the story doesn’t show all reality—the stats are for METRO women, and almost a third of them ARE having children between 25 and 29. This story warranting a headline, as if she had won the Nobel, suggests otherwise.
Posted by A - 10 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 8 hours, 25 minutes ago

To have children is a very personal decision and cannot be squared in a box. Don’t feel sorry for anyone - they are where they are by choice - with or without children.
Posted by Ronnie - 10 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 8 hours, 17 minutes ago

Having kids young, old, at any age really, is beneficial to people who have the maturity to handle it. I could NEVER had handled children at 21; I wasn’t mature enough. I wish having kids would be enough to create maturity, but I think we all know that isn’t the case. My coworker had three children, all young (23, 24, and 25 when she had them—NO JOKE!), and at 31 she still can’t juggle having a full time job.

On the flip side, my mother had me at 32 and never stopped working after her initial leave was over. My boyfriend’s mother had him at 34 and was the same. Both were professional women at the time—semi retired now. So it can definitely go both ways. For me, I’m looking at early 30s. I’m at a small where partnership track is 3 years, not 7-10, so I’ll already be at that stage.

Oh, and not everyone is where they are by choice. While I tend to agree that those with children are there by choice, I know far too many who would like to have children and can’t, either because in vitro didn’t take, they couldn’t afford to adopt, etc., that would love to have had them.
Posted by R - 10 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 7 hours, 31 minutes ago

The best-laid plans… I smile somewhat ruefully at these confident young people who are mapping out their lives with such precision. I wish them well.
Posted by Vanessa - 10 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 6 hours, 35 minutes ago

Poor kids….raised by the nanny and day care workers.
Posted by R - 10 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 6 hours ago

Hello double standard- why criticize these women without questioning the decisions of male partner-track associates? It takes two people to bring a child into the world, and it should take two people to care for a child. I feel badly for a person of either gender who works so many hours a week that he or she is not a part of a child’s life.
Posted by Jeff - 10 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 3 hours, 39 minutes ago

None of your comments address the bottom-line fallacy in this woman’s “plan” - the notion that she has any chance of making partner. I don’t care how smart she is or how hard she works, she is not making partner, so when her kids are older she is still going to be on the treadmill unless she gets off and goes government or inhouse.

I just can’t understand why anyone these days would go into BIGLAW even talking about partnership. It’s like buying a lottery ticket and then sitting down and budgeting the winnings.
Posted by GovtSlave - 10 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 1 hour, 38 minutes ago

I, for one, insist on that little trivial thing called marriage before I have children. Just because I’ll be a little older doesn’t mean anything in my book. Everyone’s life takes a different path.
My husband will be staying home while I bring home the bacon. I want to thank all those career moms from the 70’s and 80’s who paved the way so I could follow my dreams.
Posted by K. - 10 months, 2 weeks, 1 day, 16 hours, 12 minutes ago

To Jeff, at BIGLAW:

I was going over your memos and I have some serious concerns regarding your fact-checking. I mean, didn’t you know that the now semi-retired managing partner of the largest law firm in New Jersey (with offices in NYC and other major cities on the East Coast) was a woman? A woman with more than one child? (yes, I said MANAGING partner, which means she made junior partner probably in the 80’s.) Also, have you Shepardized the NALP profiles of BIGLAW lately? Apparently, thanks to the miracle of modern technology, e.g., blackberries, remote desktops, laptop docking stations (the kinds of things for which BIGLAW pays BIGMONEY because they improve productivity) – more and more firms are now allowing flex-time working arrangements for parents (female AND male) which incidentally assists the partner-track girls to keep moving right up. Oh, and flex-time need not mean part-time, Jeff, but it does mean less time, oh, how did you put that? Oh yes: “watching your kids grow up on webcam as you bounce from one dead-end BIGLAW associate job to another.” No, Jeff, actually smart BIGLAW technology is about more efficiency and more working from “off-site” locations (better known as home), which translates into more time with family, and better job satisfaction, which, studies have shown, tends to translate into less time written off billing statements b/c you’re no longer padding your timesheet to make up for time wasted writing crap along the lines of your post No.3.

For your information, Jeff, the percentage of us BIGLAW girls making partner these days is increasing fast. We are coming, Jeff, and we are moving our make-up cases and sewing kits right into your white male, big gut, small dick, ugly tie privilege.

Altogether, Jeff, I am highly disappointed in you. At the next meeting of the firm executive committee, I will recommend a review of your file. You see, Jeff, part of the new BIGLAW business plan is to keep insurance premiums down by minimizing the risk of firm exposure to lawsuits. Being that it seems you are openly promoting workplace discrimination – you are posing a serious risk of loss to the firm. I mean, I could chalk up your ignorance to your inexperience and poor judgment (after all, you HAVE been living in a cave for the last half a decade); but that, combined with your failure to perform basic fact-checking before wasting my time your memos - simply does not bode well for our malpractice premiums. I’m afraid, Jeff, but… err… we have to let you go. You may want to try your luck in another career, or better yet, on another planet.

You’re fired.
Your [Ex] GirlBoss

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