While lawyers are confident new regulations will help law firms retain female talent, many are concerned that take-up will be limited without enhanced financial packages for men. Pui-Guan Man reports

Partners are broadly optimistic that draft UK regulations allowing new parents to share one year's parental leave from 2015 have the potential to boost gender diversity in the workplace, but remain doubtful that take-up will be widespread.   

Legal Week's latest Big Question survey comes as the UK government gears up to introduce regulations allowing parents to share 50 weeks of parental leave. 

Under the new arrangements, which are set to apply to those with babies born from April 2015, women will be able to share all bar the first two weeks of their maternity leave and statutory maternity pay with their partners. Fathers or partners will be able to take up to six months of unused maternity leave after mothers go back to work, or the couple may opt to split the leave between them in multiple phases, potentially at the same time. 

But the legal profession is divided as to whether the reforms, which form part of the government's push to encourage more women to return to work after having children, will achieve their desired effect, with many male lawyers reluctant to take up the packages on offer.

Around 40% of partners think the concept of shared leave would have some impact on a law firm's ability to retain its female talent, with the caveat that there will be limited take-up as long as there is a discrepancy in salary and enhanced parental leave entitlements between men and women. A further 19% believe that such a move would be widely felt at law firms, going a long way to addressing gender imbalance.

However, this contrasts with 21% of partners who believe the reforms would not make any difference at all, citing that it would take more than a change in policy to change attitudes in the workplace.

"The law can only do so much," says Linklaters diversity manager Daniel Danso. "I think take-up will be limited as long as there are gender stereotypes in relation to taking leave. Firms need to create the kind of environment where taking leave is actually championed as opposed to just being available. 

"Generally people would feel more balanced if they are more clued in with their home life – if they have more balanced lives they will have healthier and more fulfilling careers. The only complication I can foresee with the new rules is if there are multiple couples where both work for the same organisation [taking it up]."

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baby-and-parentUpdating policies

Several large City law firms are currently reviewing their policies in light of the new legislation. Among these, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is expected to make a decision around September, while Berwin Leighton Paisner plans to offer paternity packages to all staff, although it has not formalised a new policy for this.

Firms including Allen & Overy, Eversheds, Slaughter and May and Herbert Smith Freehills currently provide paternity packages, offering two weeks' leave at full pay. However, according to the survey, 42% of partners think their firms were unlikely to, or definitely would not, offer enhanced compensation packages to male staff, which would take statutory pay up to the level of the mother's enhanced maternity package, when the new rules kick in.

"Most law firms are only just beginning to get their heads around it," says Baker & McKenzie employment partner Monica Kurnatowska. "Introducing enhanced pay could result in significant added costs for the firm, although that does depend on the take-up. It would not be a straightforward decision.

"Firms also need to consider their approach to requests for an unusual pattern of shared leave. A 'typical' pattern may be for the man to take the second six months or the final three months. The impact is similar to maternity leave and should not present any new challenges for the day-to-day management of the business."

The majority of respondents agree that allowing partners to share leave will prove more complicated for businesses to manage than if the mother alone were to take leave, with nearly half (49%) saying the changes would be 'a little' more complicated, 15% saying it would be 'a lot' more complicated and a small handful of 2% believing that the policy would be 'an absolute nightmare' in practice. This compares to just over a third (34%) who feel it makes no difference which half of a couple takes parental leave.

Taking the plunge

The government itself does not anticipate the new policy being widely adopted, having estimated take-up of the new system to be between 2% and 8% of fathers eligible for shared leave.

Among law firm partners, 30% believe there would be 'plenty' of male fee earners and support staff opting for shared leave at their own firms. An additional 43% think there would be 'a little' take-up, believing that it is unlikely fee earners would take part. More than a quarter (27%) of partners think there would be very few men at their own firms wanting to share maternity leave.

"While I think shared parental leave is a good thing to be introducing, its implementation is a potential concern," says Norton Rose Fulbright's head of employment, Paul Griffin. "I don't expect take-up to be great if there is no enhanced pay to support it. If people generally organise their lifestyles to accommodate how much they earn I think the minimal amounts of financial support on this will make participation difficult."

However, Herbert Smith Freehills head of diversity David Shields disagrees, citing findings from the firm's annual diversity audit for 2014 that showed 25% of male senior associates would like flexi-working arrangements, along with a further 29% who are female. 

"The gap is closing," says Shields. "People are more willing to sacrifice elements of pay for more flexibility, and that commitment to childcare in the workplace is no longer as gender-specific as it was 10 or 20 years ago."

Kurnatowska adds: "While there is a growing body of men who are keen to get involved in their child's life earlier, many are not ready to take a significant amount of time to do so, because they fear it is still not widely perceived as an acceptable thing for men to do. That's a shame, and I hope it is changing."

Click here to view shared parenting in numbers

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Current paternity arrangements – top 10 UK firms

Clifford Chance – two weeks on full pay; can be taken as two seperate one-week blocks

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer – full pay for two weeks for employees with 18+ months' service 

Linklaters – two weeks on full pay; can be taken within three months of the child's birth

Allen & Overy – two weeks on full pay. Should be taken in one-week blocks but does not need to be two consecutive weeks

DLA Piper – two weeks on full pay; should be taken in one-week blocks but does not need to be two consecutive weeks

Herbert Smith Freehills – two weeks on full pay

Hogan Lovells – two weeks on full pay 

Slaughter and May – two weeks on full pay, plus additional paid leave in certain circumstances

Eversheds – two weeks on full pay

Norton Rose Fulbright – two weeks on full pay