Top Biglaw Firm Offers New Parental Leave Program With Up To 22 Weeks Paid Leave
Great news!
Bonuses come and go, but a solid parental leave policy? Now that’s a perk associates will benefit from for years. Yesterday, King & Spalding — a firm that made $1,828,123,000 in gross revenue last year, making it 22nd on the Am Law 100 — announced an exciting update to their parental leave policy. As one tipster reflected, “Still waiting on bonus news, though everyone expects a match, eventually. But this news is much more important, and is long awaited as something the associates committee fought for years on.”
It’s part of a growing trend to be sure, with Biglaw firms launching expanded programs. This is good news we should — and are! — celebrating. But we also hope to build the pressure and shame on the firms whose policies and entrenched in the past.
So what are the deets on K&S’s new policy? Birthing mothers are eligible for 10 weeks of medical maternal leave under the firm’s short-term disability program. Additionally, all new parents — whether by birth, adoption, surrogacy, or foster care — get 12 weeks paid leave. Plus for 20 business days following leave, new parents will be in a “ramp up” phase where they’re only expected to work at 70% capacity but still are paid at 100%. We love seeing policies that are gender neutral and without a primary caregiver stipulation!
Kudos to the firm!
With more and more firms stepping up, expanded gender-neutral leave may start to feel de rigueur, and that’s a good thing by itself. But we should also remember it’s an important step, one experts say will help ameliorate the gender pay gap. And that’s good news we can all get behind.
Check out the firm’s complete policy below.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.
