CMS Cameron McKenna has followed Linklaters by offering enhanced shared parental leave packages for staff in light of new legislation coming into force in April.

The firm has matched its current maternity package for all partners wanting to share parental leave, under which pay exceeds the statutory minimum of £138.18 a week.

If a mother ends their parental leave and returns to work, then their partner (a CMS employee) will receive full pay for what would have been the first 10 weeks of ordinary maternity leave, and half pay for the next 16 weeks if they choose to take shared parental leave.

To be eligible to take shared parental leave, both parents must have been continuously employed for at least 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth.

Under new legislation effective in April, up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of pay can be shared between both parents, but employers can choose to offer enhanced maternity or paternity pay to all parents who take shared leave.

After the period of shared parental leave is over, CMS employees will also have the right to return to the same job if their total leave is 26 weeks or less.

The new policy does not change CMS's ordinary paternity leave provisions.

Linklaters announced its plans to go beyond the new legal requirement in December, offering six months on full pay, "subject to certain conditions", for all parents wanting to share leave.

The other magic circle firms – Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Clifford Chance, Slaughter and May and Allen & Overy – are understood to be consulting on their plans for the new legislation.

A Slaughters spokesperson said: "We are still reviewing what approach we may take on shared parental leave and we may consider some level of enhancement to statutory shared parental pay."