The Lawyer‘s figures on shared parental leave released on Monday (31 October) expose two disappointing truths.
Firstly, that the UK commercial legal market barely scrapes by on the lower end of the Government’s expectations for the uptake of shared parental leave.
Secondly – and more importantly – that the overwhelming majority of top UK law firms are unwilling to provide any data on how many people take parental leave, shared or otherwise.
If the figures aren’t bad, why hide them?
The 11 firms that provided The Lawyer with figures and breakdowns of data – one even included its data on leave for adopted parents – are likely to be among the best of their peer groups. And 63 shared parental leave takers out of the 1,303 total (around 5 per cent) is hardly a figure worth celebrating.
But these figures are a symptom of a wider problem. The lack of shared parental leave uptake strikes at the heart of many of the crippling diversity and career progression issues in the UK commercial legal market.
It’s not rocket science. The more leave men take, the more normal it will become. Suddenly, flexible working and agile working will be a widespread demand and not an initiative targeted exclusively (sometimes insultingly) at female lawyers.
Attitudes will change towards parental leave, which would become the first step to quell the hemorrhaging of female talent forced to choose between an inflexible work environment or a manageable work-life balance outside of the law.
“Gone are the days when male lawyers can just ignore their kids,” one veteran lawyer told The Lawyer. But the days of providing valuable support to soon-to-be parents just hasn’t started.
As the interviewees in the The Lawyer’s article explained, many have to make a conscious decision on whether they can afford to take shared parental leave.
Those law firm partners whose spouses or partners also happen be lawyers have to carefully weigh up the support options that their firms provide. Will each firm cover the cost of sharing leave? Will clients suffer? Will heads of departments support them? And ultimately, will their careers be damaged?
The 11 firms in our survey showed that some firms are putting in the groundwork to change attitudes within their ranks. But they are fighting against the tide. If the wider norm remains to choose desk over family, no lessons will be learned.
Just a few weeks ago, Freshfields banned ‘Dear Sirs’ from its communications and legal documents. But the the magic circle firm with the highest percentage (83 per cent total) of male partners did not extend its diversity measures to provide figures on the firm’s shared parental leave uptake.
And the same firms whose partners jested about how long it took Freshfields to formally put “Dear Sir or Madam” in place haven’t provided figures either. They aren’t laughing now.
The Lawyer’s message to the Top 50 UK firms is this: if you refuse to make your figures on shared parental leave public, you’re sending a clear message to your lawyers. You don’t encourage shared parental leave and don’t provide the support to make it a feasible option. If you want your talent to stay, quit taking baby steps and start making real strides towards supporting them.
If you don’t stand up for your people, what do you stand for?
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