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work/life balance

Striking a balance between life and work is essential for maintaining quality in both. We’ve put together flex-time and child care programs to help you do just that.

Alternative Work Schedule
We’ve created an alternative work schedule program that helps you balance your personal and professional concerns. These special schedules:

are not limited to lawyers with child care responsibilities
are an option for any lawyer at any time in their career; no service requirements or waiting periods are imposed
have no maximum time limit
do not preclude consideration for partnership; you can make partner while on an alternative schedule, and you can retain that schedule upon reaching partnership.

Partners in each department serve as alternative work schedule advisors, helping you continue to receive challenging work and stay on track to achieve your goals.

Child Care

Paul, Weiss has tailored programs that augment traditional parental leave benefits. We offer several child-care programs that help working parents better deal with emergencies. Lawyers benefit from:

Generous Parental Leave: up to 18 weeks paid leave for new parents, combining a variety of parental, adoption, primary caregiver and disability leave time
Infant Transition Program: Three full months of full-time child care for your infant in a Bright Horizons child care center located near our New York office
Emergency Back-Up Child Care: Bring your children to more than six Bright Horizons centers throughout Manhattan and Washington, D.C.
At-Home Back-Up Child Care: Child care services available in your home if a center is not open or otherwise not an option for you.

Liza Velazquez
Litigation Partner

I joined the firm’s alternative work schedule program as a mid-level associate. The program allowed me to practice law of the highest caliber, and at the same time maintain the work-life balance that was best for me.

Although I am a mother to two small children, everyone has their own reasons for adopting an alternative schedule — it doesn’t have to be about raising children. The firm's alternative work schedule program is available to attorneys who want to further their education or pursue a creative interest, for example. It’s a personal decision, and Paul, Weiss, recognizes this. Each alternative schedule is as unique as the participating attorney.

I was elected partner while I was in the alternative work schedule program — and I remained on an alternative schedule afterward. Paul, Weiss supports its attorneys in their endeavor for excellence in their professional lives and for personal fulfillment in their non-professional lives.

Robert Schuwerk
Litigation Associate

When we were expecting our first child, the idea of an alternative schedule started to interest me. So I looked into the program, and was pretty happy to find out that I could build a lot of flexibility into my schedule. They ask you how many hours do you think you want to be able to work. And if you decide you need to change your schedule further because your personal commitments or your caseload won’t permit it, you can.

And there were no questions asked. I could take an alternative schedule for any reason at all; for educational enrichment, to deal with an illness, and so on. In fact, the first time that I applied, the first thing that I was told was "You don’t have to tell us why." So after my daughter was born I decided to give it a try.

On my particular alternative schedule, I have Fridays off. I normally spend that day taking care of my daughters. When I start a new case, I let the partners and the other attorneys on the matter know that I’m generally off on that day and in every instance that’s been respected. There have certainly been times when I’ve had to come in on a Friday because of an emergency. But that’s the way everyone at the firm deals with emergencies. As long as you make clear what your parameters are, you can make it work. It’s a great program.