The legal profession can be grueling with the amount of stress and number of hours, but add in a husband, a few kids and house to maintain. It's true, the struggle can be great for the female attorney. However, there are many women in Birmingham rising to the challenge.
Checking her children's homework is just one of the many tasks in Dottie Pak's day.
The wife and mother of three also is a partner at Birmingham's largest law firm - Bradley Arant.
She says she loves being a mom and loves being a lawyer and in doing both, Pak says she's setting a good example at home.
"I think it's good for my daughter to see her mom working. I think it's good for my sons to see me working...and to see the partnership that my husband and I have at home."
But she's had to make adjustments along the way. After her youngest child Finn was born, Pak transitioned to a reduced schedule which still is more than 40 hours a week.
"The one piece of advice I give to young women is be willing to accept help, even it's help that you need to pay for," says Pak.
Twenty-nine year old Rachel Lary practices law at Lightfoot, Franklin, and White in Birmingham. She and her husband Bart have been married six years and hope to have kids one day.
"I have delayed that somewhat because of my career, but my career is really important to me, and I will continue to work after I have kids," says Lary.
Lary, who works 50 to 80 hours a week, also says a support system is imperative for the working wife.
"Fortunately, I have a really supportive husband, who does a lot of the work around the house when I'm not able to do it."
Both Lary and Pak say they've been inspired by other working moms in their firms, but that doesn't mean managing both a career and a family is easy.
"I am very happy in my position, but am still evaluating every day...'is this working for our family?'" says Pak.
Lary agrees.
"It's always a struggle, I think, in that all working women are going to be constantly trying to reach that balance."
