Small Law Firms

How To Take A Maternity Leave As A Solo Attorney 

American workplaces are generally unsupportive of maternity and parental leave.

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The Ibekwe Family (Photo by Mel Cole)

At the end of year two as a solo attorney, I was building consistency in my practice. Just when I started seeing positive results and more clients, I found out I was pregnant with my fourth child! I was in a heightened state of anxiety, especially as I got closer to my due date. I questioned how I would sustain my practice with a newborn, and I wondered what other attorneys did when they were the only attorney at a firm.

I once saw a social media post of an attorney who got back to work three days after giving birth. So many of the comments under the post were of admiration and #girlboss praise. I knew I didn’t want to get back to work right after having a baby!

According to a UNICEF Report on Family Friendliness, the U.S. is the only wealthy country without a federal, statutory paid maternity, or parental leave of any kind. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) allows some employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave, but only 60% of the workforce is eligible. Just eight states — California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Washington, and Oregon (plus Washington, D.C.) — have laws for paid family leave.

The practicality of a maternity or parental leave plan for a solo (or any) attorney is often limited. For solo and small-firm attorneys, the ability to take a paid leave can be worse due to the lack of financial resources or systems to support an extended absence. Additionally, you may have support staff to compensate while away. As a solo attorney with a two-member team, I had to find a way around this problem. In addition to some Googling, I contacted a couple of solo attorneys who had taken maternity leave. Unfortunately, most of the advice I received was to shut down my practice for two to three months and then pick it up later — nope, not a viable option for me.

While fact-finding, I joined a mastermind, where my number one objective was to solve my maternity leave conundrum. My solution was to duplicate myself by hiring an attorney starting around a month or so before I birthed. Not going to lie — this was a very stressful and worry-producing period of my life because I wanted to make sure that I could sustain my client load, pay my support staff, pay a new contract attorney, and pay myself! I also wanted to make sure I could bring in new clients so that my firm would continue to prosper.

How I Took Maternity Leave (In 10 Steps):

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  1. Start planning before the baby is born; even two weeks is better than nothing. (I recommend giving yourself months to plan.)
  2. Determine what help I need from a substitute attorney and how much I could afford to pay.
  3. Post the temporary job, interview, and hire a substitute attorney.
  4. Familiarize the substitute attorney with my client load, systems, and processes.
  5. Allow the substitute attorney to shadow other staff members and me to understand how we work.
  6. Timely notify all current clients and relevant parties about my maternity leave and the substitute attorney’s role during my absence.
  7. Take maternity leave to have the baby and try not to birth said baby in the car (this time).
  8. Decide if or when to resume light work. (After a month’s break, I was going stir crazy in my cramped house with my young children. I decided to take sales calls from my bed for one to two hours a week to promote an influx of business; this wasn’t a decision out of fear, desperation, or panic. Being stuck at home with minor kids left me craving adult interactions that didn’t involve petty fights on “The Real Housewives of Anywhere.”)
  9. Schedule bimonthly meetings for staff updates and questions. Mostly, I was there for moral support because everyone stepped up to the task.
  10. Keep the outstanding substitute attorney forever after business continues to improve. [Note: I wasn’t able to keep my sub because she started an estate planning firm. She did, however, help to train her successor. Win-win!]

My plan worked!

Sadly, my maternity leave lasted for one week. Because of COVID-19, Austin issued a shelter-in-place order right after spring break, starting in March 2020. My entire family (husband, newborn, 2-, 4-, 6-year-old) stayed at home with me for the rest of the year. Remember the beginning of the shutdown? No school, no playgrounds, no grocery runs, no interactions outside our family unit. Nothing! I’m confident that my kids have watched all the episodes of Blippi (click this link at your peril).

The silver lining is 2020 revenue was more than double my 2019 revenue. I attribute my success to my maternity leave preparation and execution. In a global pandemic, my Black woman-owned estate planning law firm was able to thrive! I don’t say this to brag; I say this to reassure you that hiring the right person to help you in your solo or small firm can be incredibly profitable. This experience has forever changed how I practice. I will never go back to doing everything myself — professionally or personally (that’s another post).

American workplaces are generally unsupportive of maternity and parental leave. I won’t even get into how many companies and firms choose to not financially support parents for the birth or adoption of a new child, forcing them to come back to work unreasonably soon after such a significant life event.

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If you are a pregnant mother, an adopting parent, or a parental figure while reading this: take the break. You can figure out how to do so in a way that works for you.

If you are a decision-maker at your firm: figure out how to pay your employees for maternity and parental leave.

Please send constructive comments or questions to me at iffywrites@ibekwelaw.com. I am always looking for topic suggestions!

Iffy Ibekwe is the principal attorney and founder of Ibekwe Law, PLLC. She is an estate planning attorney evangelist for intergenerational wealth transfer with effective wills and trusts. Iffy is writing her first book on culturally competent estate planning, available in 2022 (prayers up!). She graduated from The University of Texas School of Law and has practiced law for over 14 years. Iffy can be reached by email at iffywrites@ibekwelaw.com, on her website, and on Instagram @thejustincaselawyer.

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