Legal Love with Your Subordinate?

Earlier this week, I shared the results from Vault’s 2011 Office Romance Survey relating to the legal industry. According to these results, lawyers are hooking up with each other, and they’re not afraid to get down at the office. I decided to save one little tidbit from the survey for today—my little way of saying goodbye to Cupid’s week with some legal love controversy.

Not only have 64 percent of respondents from the legal industry gotten their kicks at work, but just over 34 percent of you have shown the love to subordinates. In other words, one third of you have gotten it on with people who report to you.

Several of you see the boss-subordinate relationship as no problem. According to one respondent, “I dated a clerical worker in my law office. While it was sometimes difficult to have a separate ‘persona’ in terms of our interaction within and outside of the office, it presented no other problems, and the relationship ended amicably.” “[I] [b]riefly supervised my current husband, which was not a problem as we were part of a dedicated team,” says another respondent.

But not everyone is on board the supervisor/report love train. According to some respondents, these relationships are  “inappropriate” and “risky." "The odds are too high that the other person would use this [as] a backstabbing opportunity once things ended,” says one respondent.

What do you think? Is dating a subordinate all good as long as you keep your relationships inside and outside of the office separate? Or are relationships with subordinates dicey and unprofessional?

Read More:
Legal Affairs: Lawyers Guilty of Getting Down in the Office
Vault’s 2011 Office Romance Survey

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