Perks / Fringe Benefits

Featured Survey Results: Maternity Leave

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baby lawyer attorney Above the Law blog.jpgYesterday, we posted some preliminary results from last week’s ATL / Lateral Link survey on leave and part-time arrangements. Today, we’re going to get a little bit deeper into the maternity leave data.
We now have more than 600 responses, and roughly three-fifths of respondents have reported that their firms offer twelve weeks of paid maternity leave. Another 17% of respondents are at firms that have adopted an eighteen-week leave policy. Since some of you have been clamoring for charts (and others have been less enthusiastic), a chart showing the overall breakdown of responses is here.
Of course, the number of responses and the number of firms are different animals, so today we’re going to start a running table of firms’ paid maternity leave policies. Check it out, after the jump.

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Biglaw Perk Watch: Seyfarth Shaw to… Unlimited Vacation!

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Seyfarth Shaw LLP logo AboveTheLaw Above the Law legal blog.jpgThe law firm perks keep rolling in. From a source at Seyfarth Shaw:

Following the recent trend of enhanced BigLaw perks, Seyfarth announced changes to their leave policy for associates. Previously, associates were given 4 weeks of vacation per year. Now, associates can now take (at least hypothetically) as much leave as they want so long as they get their work done.

This was a bit of a non-event given that associates can’t even find time to take their original 4 weeks of vacation, but the sentiment was nice anyway.

What Seyfarth associates are really waiting for are the “Associates Meetings” scheduled for this week. Word on the street is that salaries are going up. How much they will go up is the real question.

But don’t get too excited, people — we’re not talking “NY to 190.” Recall that, at least outside New York, Seyfarth is not yet on the $160K scale (at least according to their NALP forms).
The Seyfarth Shaw vacation memo, after the jump.

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Biglaw Perk Watch: Mayer Brown Matches 18 Weeks

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Mayer Brown LLP logo Above the Law AboveTheLaw blog.jpgThese announcements aren’t the most exciting things to read (or report on). But we’ve spoken to a number of associates and law students, especially women, who follow them closely. So we’ll continue posting them (and they’re easy to skip over anyway).
The latest law firm to improve its parental leave policy is Mayer Brown. Check out their memo, issued earlier today, after the jump.

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Featured Job Survey: Is Your Firm Family Friendly?

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Bingham McCutchen bear baby ad advertisement Above the Law blog.jpgThis blog has posted several entries over the last few months, and even this morning, about law firms updating their parental leave policies. That’s a great trend in the industry, but there’s probably not an associate pirate out there who doesn’t still get at least a call a week from associates who want to go part-time, but just don’t feel comfortable asking their firms.
So today’s ATL / Lateral Link survey explores both the substance and the accessibility of your firm’s policies.
Update: This survey is now closed. Click here, here, here, and here for the results.
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Justin Bernold is a Director at Lateral Link, the sponsor of this survey.

Biglaw Perk Watch: Covington & Burling to 18 Weeks

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Covington Burling LLP logo Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.JPGIn these grim economic times, don’t hold your breath waiting for news of associate pay raises or record-breaking bonuses. Everyone is tightening their belts, and that includes law firms (and their clients).
But what about enhanced parental leave? That they can do.
The latest Biglaw shop to raise “primary caregiver leave” to the “market” rate of 18 weeks is Covington & Burling. Memo after the jump.

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Sidley Austin’s Insanely Early Start Dates
(And Open Thread on Law Firm Start Dates)

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Sidley Austin Brown Wood LLP logo Abovethelaw Above the Law legal blog.JPGFrom this morning’s ATL mailbag:

It may not be that juicy of a story, but almost all of the soon-to-be first-year associates at Sidley Austin LA are pissed about the start dates they gave us. Our available start dates are August 11 or September 8. The first start date is just 10 days after the California bar. Are we being whiny bitches, or is this messed up?

We lean towards “messed up.” But we’re biased in favor of late start dates — we showed up for our first day of law firm work in December, after extensive post-clerkship travels. (We couldn’t do a post-bar trip because our clerkship started a week after the bar exam.)
So, readers, whaddya think? Do the Sidley associates have just cause for complaint? Or are these starting dates par for the course in Biglaw? What’s your law firm’s policy?
Update (11:45 AM): Based on the comments thus far, it seems the weight of authority favors “whiny bitches.” But let’s do this more systematically: take our poll.

Biglaw Perk Watch: Debevoise & Plimpton to 18 Weeks

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Debevoise Plimpton LLP Above the Law blog.jpgBiglaw is becoming kinder and gentler. The number of large law firms enhancing their parental leave policies continues to grow. The latest to join the club: Debevoise & Plimpton.
From a (male) tipster:

18 weeks. Not bad. Of course, since I’m unlikely to give birth to a child anytime soon, I’ll have to be satisfied with 10 weeks.

Also, what’s with this “primary childcare giver” business? Of the new parents I’ve known, the first few months seemed like one needed at least two primary childcare givers, if not more. Eh, I doubt D&P will be sending auditors into associates’ homes to check who bills the most hours with the baby.

The email announcing Debevoise’s policy, plus a list of firms that have recently enhanced their parental leave policies, after the jump.

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Don’t Know If Law Firms Are ‘Cuddly,’ But Whatever

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Skadden Arps teddy bear Above the Law blog.jpgYes, we did see Lisa Belkin’s “Life’s Work” column in yesterday’s New York Times, entitled “Who’s Cuddly Now? Law Firms.” Truth be told, we didn’t find it terribly exciting, since most of the law-firm lifestyle improvements she mentions are ones that are familiar to ATL readers. We also shared the reaction of the WSJ Law Blog, which found it sort of random for Thursday Styles: “Since when did the NYT Styles section become a legal trade?”
But since the article has zoomed to the top of the NYT Most Emailed Articles list, with which we are obsessed, we’re compelled to write about it. Excerpts and discussion, after the jump.

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Everyone’s a Winner at These Five Law Firms

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Best Companies To Work For Fortune CNN Money Above the Law blog.jpgCongratulations to this quintet of five law firms, which just made Fortune magazine’s annual list of the 100 Best Companies To Work For (listed below in rank order):

19. Arnold & Porter: “Staffers get 12 weeks paid maternity leave and profit sharing of 7.5% of salary. The less you make, the less you pay for health-insurance premiums.”

Actually, a correction: 18 weeks (as of January 1, 2008).

31. Alston & Bird: “Both the legal and nonlegal staff get super benefits, including 90 days of paid maternity leave, coverage of fertility treatments, and concierge services.”

Concierge services? Fabulous. Atlantans, stop yer whining!

41. Bingham McCutchen: “They’re proud of their elite grads: 72 from nearby Harvard Law, 24 from Yale, and 20 from Stanford. They all start at $160,000 a year.”

55. Perkins Coie: “They value fun at this law firm. At 2007′s Lawyerpalooza battle of the bands, the Perkins Coie rock & rollers brought down the house (and took home the top prize).”

See also Nixon Peabody: “Fun is not prohibited here.” Speaking of which…

66. Nixon Peabody: “The law firm excels on policies for GLBT employees (a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign); it targets 3% of billable hours annually for pro bono work.”

Please send us any theme songs that are composed to commemorate these honors. Thank you.
100 Best Companies To Work For (2008) [Fortune]
Earlier: Bingham McCutchen: Land of the Amazons?

Biglaw Perk Watch: Good News for Parents, from Davis Polk and Arnold & Porter

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breastfeed redacted lactate lactation room Above the Law blog.JPGSometimes we wish we had the breastses. Then we could enjoy the luxurious lactation room at Davis Polk & Wardwell.
Back in this post, we wrote about the lactation room at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. We’re sure it’s plenty nice. But we doubt it’s as snazzy as what the competition on the other side of Lexington Avenue is offering.
Check out this Davis Polk email, which went out late last year (exclamation mark in the original):

From: **** On Behalf Of Associate Development
To: all.lawyers.ny
Subject: Nursing Room

We are pleased to announce that the firm now has a private nursing room!

Located on the 10th floor, this cozy room is equipped with brand-new furniture, including a comfortable chair and end table, refrigerator, and reading materials of interest to new mothers. Access to the secure room is available through the Security Desk. A small sign on the outside of the door indicates when the room is occupied.

We hope that this amenity will provide returning mothers who wish to continue nursing their babies additional support during this important transition. Your privacy and comfort are our priority.

Please do not hesitate to contact [xxxx] or any member of the Associate Development Department if you have any questions. Thank you and congratulations to all of our new DPW Parents.

We’re curious about the “reading materials of interest to new mothers” at DPW. Draft asset purchase agreements? SEC proxy filings?
Meanwhile, in other happy news for parents, Arnold & Porter has jumped on the improved parental leave bandwagon. Following the recent trend, which we’ve been following in these pages, they’ve increased the paid leave they provide to women who give birth or primary caregivers of a newly adopted child. It used to be 12 weeks; now it’s 18 weeks, which appears to be the “market” rate these days.
Transmittal email, plus A&P’s full leave policy, after the jump.
Earlier: Biglaw Perk Watch: Lactation Rooms

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If Only They Were Biglaw Associates…

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pregnant high school students maternity leave Above the Law blog.jpg
Birth leave sought for girls [Denver Post via Drudge Report]
Earlier: Biglaw Perk Watch: Hogan & Hartson Announces Enhanced Leave for Childbirth and Adoption

Biglaw Perk Watch: Hogan & Hartson Announces Enhanced Leave for Childbirth and Adoption

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Hogan Hartson LLP Above the Law blog.JPGBeefing up parental leave policies: everybody’s doing it. It may not be another pay raise, but it’s very welcome news for lawyers at large firms who are trying to balance Biglaw with Big Family (or contemplating such a move).
We’ve written in the past about new leave policies from Simpson Thacher, Latham & Watkins, Davis Polk, Sullivan & Cromwell, and Weil Gotshal. Today Hogan & Hartson joins the 18 Weeks Club.
Memo after the jump.

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