Featured Survey Results: Paternity Leave

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve posted four sets of results from last month’s ATL / Lateral Link survey on leave and part-time arrangements:

 • your thoughts on whether you would rather work fewer hours for less pay,
 • a running table of firms’ paid maternity leave policies (mirrored here),
 • a breakdown of part-time and flex-time availability, and
 • a breakdown of childcare options (with slightly more detail provided informally here).

Today we address a fifth set of results, by popular demand: paternity leave.
As one tipster put it:

Can you also keep track of paternity leave? Firms will never really embrace work-life balance issues until they recognize that they affect both women AND men. Moreover, having lengthy maternity leave and poor paternity leave discriminates against gay couples and assumes that a woman will always be the primary caretaker.

But another comment suggests a (quickly refuted) rationale for providing shorter paid paternity leave:

The reason maternity leave is provided is because pregnancy is a legal disability. Therefore, employers (most of them) must provide you with the same rights as if you were disabled in any other way (if you’ve been there for a year), even though pregnancy is a voluntary disability. So if your firm has a 12-week disability, then it’s 12 weeks etc. (See Pregnancy Discrimination Act if I’m wrong on any of this, I’ve only seen it tangentially).

Obviously, there’s only one way to settle the debate . . . another running table. Check it out after the jump.

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The table below is based on over 650 responses to last month’s ATL / Lateral Link survey on leave and part-time arrangements. As with the maternity leave and clerkship bonus tables, please send us an e-mail if we’re missing information (or wrong) about your firm.

Paid Paternity Leave Policies By Firm

Firm Paternity leave
Akin Gump 4 weeks*
Alston & Bird 3 weeks
Andrews Kurth 2 weeks
Arnold & Porter 6 weeks
Baker Botts 12 weeks
Blank Rome 6 weeks
Brown Rudnick 4 weeks
Cadwalader 4 weeks
Cahill Gordon & Reindel 4 weeks
Cleary Gottlieb 5 weeks*
Clifford Chance 4 weeks
Cooley Godward Kronish 2 weeks**
Covington & Burling 6 weeks***
Crowell & Moring 4 weeks
Day Pitney 2 weeks
Debevoise 5 weeks*
Dechert 4 weeks
Dewey & LeBoeuf 4 weeks
DLA Piper 4 weeks
Dorsey & Whitney 6 weeks
Drinker Biddle & Reath 12 weeks****
Fenwick & West 4 weeks*
Foley & Lardner 4 weeks
Fulbright & Jaworski None*
Gibbons PC 12 weeks
Goodwin Procter 4 weeks
Greenberg Traurig 12 weeks
Heller Ehrman 6 weeks
Holland & Knight 6 weeks
Hughes Hubbard & Reed 2 weeks
Jenner & Block 6 weeks*
Kaye Scholer 2 weeks
King & Spalding 12 weeks
Kirkland & Ellis 10 weeks
Latham & Watkins 12 weeks
Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps 6 weeks
Mayer Brown 6 weeks*
McDermott Will & Emery 4 weeks
O’Melveny & Myers 4 weeks
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe 4 weeks
Patterson Belknap 4 weeks*
Paul Hastings 4 weeks
Paul Weiss 4 weeks*
Proskauer Rose 6 weeks
Quinn Emanuel 3 days
Reed Smith 6 weeks
Ropes & Gray 4 weeks
Saul Ewing 12 weeks
Schulte Roth & Zabel 10 weeks
Shearman & Sterling 4 weeks
Sidley Austin 4 weeks
Skadden 2 weeks
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal 2 weeks
Steptoe & Johnson 2 weeks
Stroock 2 weeks
Sullivan & Cromwell 4 weeks
Venable 12 weeks
White & Case 6 weeks
Willkie Farr & Gallagher 4 weeks
WilmerHale 4 weeks* ***
Womble Carlyle 1 week

*Cleary Gottlieb and Debevoise & Plimpton provide an additional 5 weeks paid leave to the primary caregiver, and Paul Weiss provides an additional 6 weeks paid leave to the primary caregiver (for a total of 10 weeks). Jenner & Block provides an additional 6 weeks paid leave to the primary caregiver, and Patterson Belknap provides an additional 8 weeks of paid childcare leave to the primary caregiver (for a total of 12 weeks). Fulbright & Jaworski provides 12 weeks of paid childcare leave to the primary caregiver. Akin Gump, Fenwick & West, and WilmerHale provide an additional 14 weeks of paid leave to the primary caregiver (for a total of 18 weeks).
**Leave is one week during the first year of employment, and two weeks thereafter.
***Also applies (to either parent) in the case of an adoption (or a surrogacy) or a court-appointed guardianship.
****Firm provides 12 weeks of paid leave and 12 weeks of unpaid leave.
Note: that “Who’s Your Daddy Image” t-shirt above is from Phat Rags. We assume they’re authorized to make and market that shirt, but if not, please let us know and we’ll find something less awesome to post. (Remember: sue the designer, not the blogger. The designer won’t tear your arms off if he loses.)
Also, a quick note of thanks to Legal Blog Watch and ABA Journal for mentioning some of the ATL / Lateral Link surveys (if not, ahem, me) in recent posts.

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