Lawyer Dads Cite Onsite Day Care as Key Work Life Balance Benefit

They're not just lawyers, they're fathers of young children, trying to juggle the demands of a busy law practice and family life.  If you think that's easy, just ask Brian Koide and James L. Cooper.  They can tell you.  They're two men, working at two major law firms, both in Washington, DC.  Both men have two small children.  Both have used the onsite daycare services their law firms offer.

Yes, you read that right: onsite (or almost onsite) daycare at law firms.  For Brian Koide, a lawyer in the intellectual property group at Crowell & Moring, it means a safe place where his twin 2-year-old sons, Ian and Simon, can stay and play and nap while he and his wife are working.  Koide's office is just a block away from the Bright Horizons center where the boys spend their weekdays.  He and his wife have coordinated their work schedules to allow one parent to take the children to the daycare center in the morning, while the other parent picks them up and takes them home in the late afternoon. 

James L. Cooper, a partner at Arnold & Porter, has two daughters, aged 6 and 3, who stay at the day care center his firm provides.  He says that benefit is one of the reasons he has stayed at the firm.

Law firms often see providing convenient daycare as a good business decision.  Providing day care facilities for working parents evinces a firm's dedication to issues like lawyer retention, well-being, quality of life, and opportunities for part-time lawyers.  It's too early to tell just how effective onsite day care will be for retaining lawyers, but the experiences of Brian Koide and James L. Cooper suggest many working-dad (and working-mom) lawyers will appreciate the added benefit.