When Beth Olsen got to her seventh year as an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell, she lifted her head from her heavy workload and considered what she wanted from the rest of her career.

“I looked around and thought, ‘Oh, wow, I’m senior now. I’m at a great firm, I have substantive work. But do I want to make a life here? Do I want to make partner?’ The answer was, ‘No,’” she said in an interview.