Lawyers: Making the Most of Your Parenting Years While Maintaining a Successful Legal Practice / Legal Employers: Retaining Happy and Healthy Parent Lawyers

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This episode of Behind the Lines: The Houston Lawyer Podcast features 3 panels about practicing while parenting in different stages and unique situations, a wellness break, & a spotlight on one of the Houston Bar Association's ancillary organizations. The episode has 2 titles because the content in the 3 main segments will be helpful in different ways to different people. The guests in these segments offer support and guidance to lawyer parents in various stages of their careers, provide context for colleagues who are not parents about the challenges they face, and give practical tips to legal employers about how to retain talented lawyer parents. The guests also discuss several legal topics associated with having children, including college savings plans and cyberbullying.

I. Lawyers: Practicing While Parenting Young Children / Legal Employers: How to Support and Retain Talented Parents of Young Children
In this segment, 3 lawyers who are also parents of young children---Maryann Zaki of Zaki Law, Sara M. Prasatik of Wilson Gibbs + Gorn, and Keri Brown of Baker Botts---discuss best practices for maternity/paternity leave, changing career paths, & how to make legal work environment more inviting to parent lawyers. Keri Brown also offers advice from a tax law perspective on college savings plans.

II. Wellness Break: Eating Right While on the Go with Nutritionist Catherine Kruppa

III. Lawyers: Practicing While Parenting in the Teen, Tweens, and Twenties / Legal Employers: Considering the Needs of More Seasoned Parent Lawyers
In this segment, Rachael Thompson of Winston & Strawn and Lewis Thomas of Lewis Thomas P.C., who are parents of children in the tweens, teens, or twenties, talk about how they manage their law practice while parenting older children. Rachael also addresses how her firm supports parent lawyers, and Lewis addresses starting your own firm to increase flexibility. The panelists also provide tips relating to cyber-bullying and best practices for teen-aged drivers during a traffic stop. 

IV.  Lawyers: Practicing While Adopting  / Legal Employers: Best Practices for Supporting and Retaining Talented Adoptive Parents
Heather Potts of Nathan Sommer Jacobs adopted 2 older children internationally while she was a practicing lawyer. She provides tips for lawyer who are considering international adoption, encourages adoption of older children, & discusses how firms or legal employers can provide a healthy environment that goes beyond FMLA requirements so that adoptive parents feel supported in their decisions, which leads to the lawyer being more of an asset to the lawyer’s employer. 

V. Ancillary Organization Spotlight: HVL’s Guardianship Partnership with HYLA
In this segment, Behind the Lines Interviewer Mark Yablon interviews the Honorable Jerry Simoneaux about the partnership between Houston Volunteer Lawyers and Houston Young Lawyers' Association. The Judge encourages listeners to become HVL volunteers and consider taking these types of cases.

CLE Credit
Listeners who are also members of the HBA can receive 1.5 hours of CLE credit for listening to this entire episode. Visit the HBA's CLE page for more details. 

For full speaker bios, visit The Houston Lawyer (hba.org/thehoustonlawyer). To read The Houston Lawyer magazine, visit The Houston Lawyer_home. For more information about the Houston Bar Association, visit Houston Bar Association (hba.org).
*The views expressed in this episode do not necessarily reflect the views of The Houston Lawyer Editorial Board or the Houston Bar Association.