The Associate Pirate

It took me a bit longer than usual to get out a post on ATL today. Interviewing scheduling and prep is afoot, and I was momentarily incapacitated by David Lat’s brilliant post about his Facebook woes.

But since the post features a running table of paternity leave, I’m mirroring that bit of it here:

Paid Paternity Leave Policies By Firm
Last updated July 9, 2008

*Cleary Gottlieb and Debevoise & Plimpton provide an additional 5 weeks paid leave to the primary caregiver, and Paul Weiss provides an additional 6 weeks paid leave to the primary caregiver (for a total of 10 weeks). Jenner & Block provides an additional 6 weeks paid leave to the primary caregiver, and Patterson Belknap provides an additional 8 weeks of paid childcare leave to the primary caregiver (for a total of 12 weeks). Fulbright & Jaworski provides 12 weeks of paid childcare leave to the primary caregiver. Akin Gump, Fenwick & West, and WilmerHale provide an additional 14 weeks of paid leave to the primary caregiver (for a total of 18 weeks).

**Leave is one week during the first year of employment, and two weeks thereafter.

***Also applies (to either parent) in the case of an adoption (or a surrogacy) or a court-appointed guradianship

****Firm provides 12 weeks of paid leave and 12 weeks of unpaid leave.

Also, the mighty Debra Cassens Weiss has an interesting post in the ABA Journal on a recent flextime study:

The study by the Georgia Association for Women Lawyers found that only 30 percent of the surveyed law firms had formal policies for part-time or flexible work. Yet 86 percent of women lawyers surveyed are interested in part-time or flexible work arrangements in the near future, a report on the study said.. . .Women made up about 28 percent of lawyers at the law firms surveyed, but comprised about 38 percent of the group leaving firms. When asked why they left, almost 44 percent of the lawyers surveyed said the reason was professional dissatisfaction, 25 percent said they wanted more money, and 24 percent said they wanted to work fewer hours. Nearly 40 percent also checked an “other” category and listed more specific reasons, including better career opportunities, the need for part-time or flexible work options, or the difficulties of raising a family while working as a lawyer.

The equally mighty Martha Neil had a post in January about the benefits of flexible hours, and also mentioned my own survey on benefits preferences (but, ahem, not me) in a great post last month about the great David Lat.