Mother In Law: Work-Life Balance from the Children's Perspective

Work-life balance is more than a woman's issue. Men and women struggle to balance work and personal lives, and children are affected by this balancing act as well. This third book in the series presents the "rest of the story" - about family life and work-life balance described by children of women lawyers. In this collection of essays, children of women lawyers from ages three to forty share their thoughts and feelings about having a mom who is a lawyer. Many of the younger writers say their mothers are always working, and they wish they were more available. As they become older, the children discuss having to "look after" younger siblings and having too many babysitters. As authors approach their teens, they describe what their mothers have taught them: how to be impartial, self-disciplined, independent, organized, self-sufficient, and diplomatic. Across all ages, the children observe that success in a parent's profession means life is better. Many of the authors want to be lawyers. Others emphatically do not. There is agreement that mothers work hard, and all admit they are proud their mothers are lawyers as well as role models, the nicest women, involved parents, helpful, fun, beautiful, independent, and generous.

Jacquelyn Slotkin: B.A., University of Pittsburgh; M.A., West Virginia University; Ph.D., University of Arizona; J.D., University of San Diego.
Professor Slotkin, former legal skills professor and director of the Legal Skills program, is director of the LL.M./M.C.L. program for foreign lawyers at California Western School of Law in San Diego. She and her daughter, Samantha Goodman, produced their first book, IT'S HARDER IN HEELS: Essays by Women Lawyers Achieving Work-Life Balance in 2007 and their second book, SHARING THE PANTS: Essays on Work-Life Balance by Men Married to Lawyers in 2009.

Samantha Slotkin Goodman: B.A., University of California Los Angeles; J.D., Loyola Law School.
Samantha Goodman concentrates her practice on commercial real estate leasing representing landlords and tenants. Samantha was Senior Associate at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, Senior Associate at DLA Piper US LLP, and Counsel with Bryan Cave LLP. She frequently lectures on landlord and tenant law, has been named a California Rising Star every year since 2004 in a poll among South California Super Lawyers conducted by Law and Politics and Los Angeles magazines, and was named one of the "Southland's Rising Young Stars Under 40" by Real Estate Southern California.