Paternity-Leave Bias In Biglaw: When Will It End?
Biglaw firms are slowly but surely recognizing that male attorneys need parental leave.
When it comes to parental leave in Biglaw, male lawyers often find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place. Men are already at a disadvantage when it comes to the amount of paid time off they’re due to receive for the birth or adoption of a child. While women in Biglaw receive about 15 weeks of paid maternity leave on average, at about 7 weeks on average, men in Biglaw receive less than half of the valuable time their female counterparts get to spend with the new additions to their families.
In addition to the shorter time allotted for paternity leave at most firms, men are often stigmatized for taking parental leave in the first place. Should they take the full amount of time off that’s offered by their firms (if any time off is offered in the first place) and perhaps risk putting their careers in jeopardy in the eyes of older partners, or should they quickly and quietly celebrate the birth or adoption of a child and power through their children’s formative months at the office?
Some firms are trying to do away with the stigma that men have to deal with when the topic of paternity leave is broached, and some progress has been made.
Is The Future Of Law Distributed? Lessons From The Tech Adoption Curve
Winston & Strawn has been a leader in this revolution, offering a lengthy, gender-neutral parental leave policy that doesn’t require attorneys to identify themselves as primary or secondary caregivers. At other firms, there’s been more of an effort made to support new fathers and encourage them to take off that they need to spend with their families. But in a professional environment where there’s an implicit bias against taking paternity leave, it’s essential that fathers in Biglaw do all that they possibly can to mainstream the practice.
Many male attorneys are too worried that their billable hours will suffer if they choose to take an extended amount of paternity leave time, even though some firms offer months of time off. One firm has offered a solution to that problem.
Taft Stettinius & Hollister, which just increased its leave to 16 weeks for both primary and secondary caregivers (up from 12 weeks for primary caregivers and two weeks for secondary caregivers), has changed its financial goals for lawyers who take parental leave. In an interview with Law.com about the new policy, firm chairman and managing partner Bob Hicks said, “We treat the four months off as if they were working full time and give them credit as if they were. It would be a naked, ineffective policy if we didn’t change their billable hour goals and other goals for the leave.” Here are some additional details:
Hicks said he knows it will take time and a concerted effort to change his firm’s thinking about parental leave, and he expects the culture will change the most dramatically once nonprimary caregivers begin taking leave. The first lawyer recently announced he would take the full 16 weeks under the new policy.
Hicks has planned to make a “big deal” about the new policy at an upcoming employee retreat, he said. He also will caution older attorneys that if they talk about their experiences raising children without taking leave, younger attorneys might think they should not take time off.
“People don’t intend to be dismissive of our policy, but they talk about their days,” he said.
Both partners and associates will hear it from the top that lawyers will not face any stigma when they come back to work, he said.
Sponsored
Legal AI: 3 Steps Law Firms Should Take Now
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
Is The Future Of Law Distributed? Lessons From The Tech Adoption Curve
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
Congratulations to Taft Stettinius and to all of the law firms that have paved the pathway forward for the normalization of paternity leave in Biglaw.
What is your firm doing to eliminate the stigma that’s often associated with taking paternity leave? We’re interested in learning about your experiences — good or bad — and may anonymously feature some of your stories on Above the Law. You can email us, text us at (646) 820-8477, or tweet us @atlblog.
Paternity-Leave Stigma at Law Firms Lifting, Ever So Slowly [Law.com]
Staci 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.
Sponsored
Navigating Financial Success by Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Maximizing Firm Performance
