Biglaw Firm Makes Life Easier For Working Mothers

This is the second firm to offer such a revolutionary perk.

lawyer with babyLast September, when writing about Latham & Watkins’s revolutionary breast milk-shipping program for all nursing mothers — both attorneys and staff members — traveling on work-related business, we asked, “Which Biglaw firm will be the next to step up and make life a little easier for female associates and staff who are working mothers?” Several months have passed, and it appears that another Biglaw firm has decided to make accommodations for new mothers.

The shipping of breast milk is still an uncommon perk offered by Biglaw firms, but Reed Smith announced this week that it will begin to do so for its attorneys who are on business trips. The firm is also upgrading its office lactation centers by installing hospital-grade, multiuse breast pumps to make the process more seamless than ever before for nursing mothers. Last, but not least, the firm will pay for lawyers returning from maternity leave to take an online coaching course called Mindful Return, which was created by Dentons partner Lori Mihalich-Levin. (Mihalich-Levin is also the author of Back to Work After Baby (affiliate link); expect to see a review of that book here on Above the Law sometime soon.)

More Biglaw firms should be offering these services and upgrades to nursing mothers. After all, it’s not as if they’re very expensive. The Legal Intelligencer has more information on their cost — which is really quite low:

The cost of these programs is nominal. A 34-ounce overnight milk shipment costs $139, the office breast pumps cost roughly $1,000 per office and the four-week online course costs $99 per person. But the firm is hoping for a greater return on the investment, in the form of a culture shift and the ability to ease women lawyers’ rise in the ranks. Losing good lawyers, after all, can be much more costly.

Karen Lee Lust, who is in charge of ReturnRS, the firm’s program whose goal is to retain women, says that “the more support there is for women the less attrition there is.” No one, not even Biglaw attorneys, should “feel like [they] have to choose between doing [their] job and being a good parent.”

Congratulations to Reed Smith on going forward with this program. The firm’s nursing mothers will feel all the more valued because something like this is being offered. Reed Smith is the second Biglaw firm that we know of that will ship its nursing lawyers’ breast milk back home to their babies.

Why haven’t more firms announced programs like this yet? If your firm is making life easier for nursing mothers and has a breast milk-shipping policy, please reach out to us via email or text at (646) 820-8477.

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Reed Smith Tries Low-Cost Parenting Perks to Retain Women [Am Law Daily]

Earlier: Biglaw Firm Offers Revolutionary Program For Working Mothers


Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please 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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