Amy Royal and Kim Klimczuk are like most young lawyers who have left the relative safety of a large firm to start their own venture — they’re excited yet also a little apprehensive about the dramatic sea change in responsibilities. But these two have some additional goals and aspirations. Admittedly alarmed by an MIT report detailing why women are leaving law firms in Massachusetts — a stated lack of proper work/life balance — Royal and Klimczuk say they want to provide the kind of environment that is apparently hard to find in the Bay State today.

Amy Royal says she knew the time was right, even if she wasn’t exactly sure just how she knew.

She was talking about her decision last fall to leave the Springfield-based law firm Skoler Abbott & Presser to start her own firm. This is a decision many lawyers eventually come to, she said, usually after months, if not years, of agonizing over what amounts to a bold, entrepreneurial career move: leaving the relative safety of a larger firm for the challenges and perils that come with putting your name over the door.

Royal, an employment-law specialist, had thought about such a step for some time, but actually came to the decision rather quickly, over the course of a few meetings with partner-to-be Amy Griffin Munnings, with a determination that the timing wouldn’t really get any better for such a step.

“I just decided that if I didn’t do it then, I probably never would,” she explained, noting that she was on the so-called ‘partner track’ at Skoler Abbott and feared that once that title was on her business card she would become too comfortable to leave. “I was at that point in my career — I had been practicing for eight years — when I was worried about getting settled. Once I decided that this would be the right move for me, I just did it.”

Kim Klimczuk used different phraseology, but came back to the same basic point about her decision to follow Royal’s lead, leave Skoler Abbott, where the two had worked together for several years, and join her in her venture after Griffin Munnings announced she was leaving for a new opportunity.

“I had a secure job, and I had plenty of work,” she said, adding that at times like the present, when the economy is soft, there is a surge in employment-law work that is part and parcel to layoffs and downsizings. “Still, I knew the time was right for me to make the leap.”

In less than a year, the firm has grown to six lawyers, with offices in Northampton and downtown Springfield, and is becoming increasingly visible in those communities, as well as points in between and beyond.

Together, Royal and Klimczuk want to do what most lawyers with their names on the letterhead aspire to — grow their firm, add new lawyers, and diversify the roster of services — and all this is spelled out in a revised business plan penned a few weeks ago. But they want to do something else in the process.

Fueled by some of their own observations and an MIT report detailing how many women are leaving the legal profession, or at least leaving large law firms, because they can’t achieve the desired work/life balance, the two partners say they want to create an environment that’s attractive and effective for women — and they’re already at work doing so.

Titled “Women Lawyers and Obstacles to Leadership — A Report of MIT Workplace Center Surveys on Comparative Career Decisions and Attrition Rates of Women and Men in Massachusetts Law Firms” — the study concludes that firms should, but do not, do more to help women stay in their positions.

“Women leave the partnership track mainly due to the difficulty of combining law-firm work and caring for children in a system that requires long hours under high pressure with little or inconsistent support for flexible work arrangements,” the report states. “Likewise, they stay in a firm or switch firms mainly in response to the possibility of support for schedules allowing time for family care without penalties for promotion.”

Royal said advancing telecommunications technology allows for the kinds of flex scheduling mentioned in the report, and that her firm, apparently in contrast to most others in this market and this state, will let associates take advantage of that opportunity.

“That report was shocking to me,” she told BusinessWest. “If women aren’t staying with law firms, fewer will become judges down the road, and more will become in-house lawyers or work for insurance companies so they can have a more-structured day. It was important for me to try to create something that would hopefully foster women in the law.”

For this issue, BusinessWest talked at length with Royal and Klimczuk about how they came together in their venture and where they want to take their firm.

Opening Statement

Looking back on her decision to strike out on her own, Royal, 33, a member of BusinessWest’s 40 Under Forty class of 2009, said it had less to do with work/life issues — although, with two young children, she was facing those as well — than her own entrepreneurial tendencies.

She said it’s always been her dream to have her own firm, even when she started out out with the state Attorney General’s office, and rather than wait for that proverbial perfect time to do so, she concluded that there was really no such thing. So when the opportunity knocked — in the form of discussions between Royal and Griffin Munnings about common goals and career aspirations that led to talk of going into business together — she answered the door.

And she’s never looked back.

Armed with a solid client base that includes Lenox, the Center for Human Development, Troy Industries, and other large employers, Royal knew she had a solid foundation on which to build, and she believes her team can add a number of building blocks.

Indeed, the business plan she and Griffin Munnings put together — and the one later penned by Royal and Klimczuk — details a firm that would focus on all matters of employment-law work on behalf of corporate clients, but also specialize in assistance to women- and minority-owned businesses, which Royal believes will constitute an effective niche.

Klimczuk, who came on board in July, said she did a lot of research and soul-searching before she made her entrepreneurial leap.

“In this economy, you don’t see a lot of people jumping from a secure job,” she told BusinessWest, “but I liked the idea of having my own law firm, and to create a firm that would be good not only for us, but the other attorneys who worked here.”

In a relatively short time, the firm has grown to include six lawyers. In addition to Royal and Klimczuk, R&K, as it’s also called, includes brothers Peter and Michael Fenton, both experienced employment-law specialists; Frederick Royal (Amy’s father), who handles employee benefits and taxation issues; and Griffin Munnings, who is still with the firm and mostly handles work for nonprofits.

This team, coupled with two locations, should enable the firm to become what would be considered a truly regional law firm, said Royal, adding that the Northampton office, where she and Klimczuk are based, gives R&K access to the business opportunities in Hampshire and Franklin counties, as well as the Greater Springfield area. And it also gives the firm a more solid base of operations in Paradise City than many Springfield-based firms that have what amount to satellite offices in that community.

Royal and Klimczuk say they plan to grow their client base by establishing themselves as a one-stop resource for employers dealing with a host of employment law and related issues, and being proactive with regard to services, offering help and educational support that might prevent trouble down the road.

As just one example, they cited the state’s new regulations concerning the safeguarding of personal information. These regulations have been pushed back and, quite recently, changed to be less penal, but they are still somewhat complex and a formidable challenge to employers of all sizes.

In response, R&K has scheduled a series of identity-theft seminars, the latest to be staged later this month, designed to give business owners a detailed accounting of what they’re up against with the law known as ‘201 CMR 17.’ The seminars will hopefully lead to some direct business, said Klimczuk, noting that there will be plenty of work for area law firms when it comes to helping businesses navigate the new regulations and meet the March 1, 2010 deadline for compliance. But they are also intended to build awareness of the company and those initials R and K, and to plant seeds for when other employment-law matters arise.

Overall, the firm is fairly aggressive when it comes to visibility and networking, said Klimczuk, adding that it is active with groups like local chambers of commerce and is seeking certification with SOMWBA, the State Office of Minority and Women Business Assistance.

While building their brand, Royal and Klimczuk will also continue going about the task of creating an environment they believe will be inviting to women and address matters detailed in the MIT report.

“A lot of it happens after they join the firm, and once they have a child or two they decide, given the demands of their job and the demands of their family, to make the choice to leave the private practice and find a job that’s more flexible,” she explained in describing the course many women in the law are taking today. “Generally, they stay in the legal field, but they go in-house; the trend is that women are leaving private practice as they have children, and that really concerned me.

“Because of the technology we have today, people can work outside the office, and they can work non-traditional hours,” she continued, adding that she’s not sure why many firms don’t offer such flexibility, but believes they are putting themselves at a disadvantage by not doing so. “I think it only helps the employer overall to be able to offer that balance.”

Going further, Royal said she and Klimczuk want to actively mentor young women in law school and just out of it and provide a measure of support they say is currently not available to such individuals.

“There was and is an old-boys network,” she explained, “and I want to create that for women.”

Final Arguments

While working to create this old-boys network for girls, Royal and Klimczuk say they want to continue growing their firm and making the freshly minted R&K logo a part of the local legal landscape.

They believe they have the team, the locations, the products and services, and, overall, an operating philosophy to make that happen.

And they have something else — that entrepreneurial drive needed to leave the relative comfort of a large firm and a steady stream of employment-law work and try to make it on their own.

“The timing is never perfect for something like this,” said Royal. “But I knew it was time for me to take this step.”

Thus far, it has all the appearances of a big step forward.

George O’Brien can be reached at obrien@businesswest.com