Une clientèle envahissante ? Les temporalités des avocat·es en droit de la famille

Abstract

This article analyzes the relationship to time and work of family lawyers based on a collective survey conducted in law firms in several jurisdictions. This article nuances the studies highlighting the lawyers' control of interaction and analyzes how professionals can feel overwhelmed in their relationship with clients. The impression of being overwhelmed is all the more intene that that the norm of permanent availability remains very rooted, even if it is undermined by the feminization of the profession. Lawyers' management of their relationship with their clients thus corresponds to different logics of articulation of social times, to the intersection of gender relations, the family configurations in which they are caught and their position in the career. Finally, depending on their place in the legal advice market, the composition of their clientele or the size of their practice, lawyers do not lawyers have the same resources to deal with this invasion. Inequalities in terms of gender, professional situation and territory are therefore a determining factor.

Keywords

• Work-life balance
• gender
• lawyer
• law
• service relationship
• division of labour