Biglaw Firm Offers Big-Time Perk For Working Parents

Less work with more pay? What could be better?

iStock_000037836078_LargeReturning to work after being on parental leave for a number of months can be a difficult process, especially for new parents employed at Biglaw firms. One firm is trying to make it a little easier for new parents who have to manage heavy workloads and billable hours requirements amid sleepless nights filled with diapering and feeding crying infants.

Gibson Dunn has created a new transition period policy that will allow new parents — even new parents who were already working on flex-time schedules — to scale back their hours without their pay suffering at the expense of easing back into work.

Yesterday afternoon, Kenneth Doran, the firm’s chairman and managing partner, detailed the new policy in an email sent to all U.S. associates and of counsel. Doran’s email is available in full on the next page. Here’s the policy in relevant part:

We recognize that in many cases it takes time to transition back into the full-time practice of law following a leave. As part of the Firm’s commitment to support attorneys during such transitions, we will relax our hours expectations for the first 3 months after returning from leave to 75% of targeted pace without any corresponding impact on compensation. This benefit will apply automatically to U.S. associates and of counsel who are the birth mothers and/or primary caregivers of a new baby, adopted child or foster child and are returning from an eligible leave. A similar benefit will apply to lawyers on flex time – i.e., they may work at 75% of their approved flex-time pace during this transition period. This new transition period policy is effective retroactively from the start of this compensation year (November 1, 2016).

This seems like it could be wonderful for new parents at Gibson Dunn, but the new policy will only be as wonderful as it sounds if the partners who work with new parents at the firm allow them to take full advantage of its benefits. We’ve heard from numerous sources across multiple Biglaw firms that while myriad work-life balance and transition policies like Gibson Dunn’s are offered to make parents’ lives easier, it’s nearly impossible to utilize them due to the demands of partners who assign them work.

That being said, we’d like to offer our congratulations to Gibson Dunn on its new transition period policy for working parents. This is a step in the right direction, and we’re sure attorneys at the firm will be very happy that such a policy now exists.

(Flip the page to see Ken Doran’s email about the transition period policy in full.)

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Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. She’d love to hear from you, so feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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