Leavitt and Ocasio-Cortez spark conversation on challenges of family and career

Seema Patel, an associate professor of law at UC Law San Francisco, also stays up late at night to try to finish her work so she doesn’t have to miss moments with her children.

“The reality is that these years in your kids’ lives are so fleeting, and I’m super aware of the time,” she said.

Patel worked for San Francisco’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement, which became the first local government in the US to pass a law requiring employers to provide paid parental leave.

But through her career as a workers’ rights lawyer, she has seen many lower-wage workers and parents who are not lucky enough to have access to paid time off.

When Patel began working as a federal attorney, her boss advised her to save up her vacation days in case she eventually wanted to have children and needed to take leave. She ended up taking the advice.

“I was a brand new, young attorney who had not even contemplated that stage of my life, but I had to in that moment, face that question of – I better be saving my vacation days,” she said.

But even with some maternity leave and a dedicated partner, as her children – now ages 13, 11 and seven – have grown older, the work-life juggling act remains a challenge.

“I have a high-producing job,” she said. “How can I do that while also being there for my kids and attentive to them? I don’t have an answer.”