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For Angela and Alec Laidlaw, who met during their 1L section at the University of San Diego鈥檚 law school, friendship turned to romance during their third year. They kept their relationship secret for several months, then married just after finishing the bar exam.

Shortly after their first child was born in 2007, the pair moved their home, family and law practice – Laidlaw & Laidlaw – to West Linn. Alec specializes in real estate and land-use matters, civil litigation and family law cases. Angela handles divorces, custody disputes, restraining orders and other family law cases.

Now the parents of 8-year-old Katelyn, 5-year-old Caroline and three-year-old Joseph, Angela describes how she and Alec balance running a business with raising kids and having a life outside the office.

Briefly Legal: What are the challenges of practicing with your spouse?

Angela Laidlaw: It鈥檚 hard to leave work at work and home at home.聽Work conversations spill into our evening hours, and it鈥檚 hard to do the typical 鈥渃omplaining-about-the-office-once-you-get-home鈥� because that usually means we鈥檙e complaining about each other. The financial pressure is also tough; there isn鈥檛 a separate salary to fall back on.

BL: What are the rewards?

Angela Laidlaw: We have the same goals. We want to be good, successful attorneys and we want to be involved, loving parents.聽We don鈥檛 believe that achieving one of those goals necessarily means sacrificing the other.聽It鈥檚 nice to come home and know that your spouse totally understands where you鈥檙e coming from.聽 There鈥檚 a camaraderie and familiarity that we wouldn鈥檛 have if we weren鈥檛 so deeply involved in each other鈥檚 professional lives.

BL: How do you and Alec maintain a healthy work-life balance?

Angela Laidlaw: Our law practice can be demanding at times, both in our time and in emotional energy.聽We care a lot about our clients and the outcomes of their cases. We also want to ensure that our office is a great place to work. We have three employees, so we build the camaraderie and team environment as much as possible.

We think the keys are efficiency and an extraordinary support network.聽Driving time shaves valuable minutes off our day, so we limit the distance we have to drive for our personal lives. And having our family to pitch in is huge.

I coached our daughter鈥檚 softball team and Alec coaches the kids鈥� soccer teams, which we consider to be a cross between family time and personal time.聽Alec plays squash and loves fishing.聽I鈥檝e been able to run a few half marathons and two marathons in the past few years.聽These are the things that, although more rare than we would like, keep our heads mostly screwed on straight.