Herbert Smith Freehills is offering all employees in its nine Asian offices up to 24 weeks of paid parental leave, regardless of gender and sexual orientation – an unusually generous and progressive plan for the legal sector in Asia.

The new policy, which will take effect on May 1, allows primary caregivers to take up to 24 weeks leave with full pay, while secondary caregivers will be allowed to take up to three weeks with full compensation. The programme is available to all parents working at the firm, regardless of gender, sexual orientation or other circumstances. It also applies to adoption and surrogacy. And it applies regardless of statutory limits in each jurisdiction.

As part of the firm's efforts to encourage working fathers to share childcare responsibility and improve gender equality, the new parental leave policy will use a sharing mechanism, said David Phillips, the firm's Hong Kong-based Asia head of human resources.

For example, under Hong Kong law a new mother is entitled to 10 weeks of maternity leave. But under the new Herbert Smith Freehills plan, a parent who is the secondary caregiver can take three weeks of paid leave while the primary caregiver would take the 10 weeks. Then, the parents would switch roles: Once the primary caregiver returns to work, the parent employed by Herbert Smith Freehills would take over as primary caregiver and take the remaining 14 weeks allowed under the firm's policy.

On top of the 24 weeks paid leave, employees are entitled to four additional weeks of unpaid leave. And according to Phillips, the firm generally allows employees to extend the unpaid leave beyond the four-week entitlement.

"We believe this policy is among the very best in Asia in our sector," said the firm's Asia managing partner Justin D'Agostino in a statement. "Making sure everyone has the chance to balance work and parenting is a vital part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion."

The Asia programme borrows experiences from Herbert Smith Freehills' Australian and U.K. parental leave policies. In Australia, the firm has a similar scheme that allows parents to share primary childcare responsibility. Primary caregivers receive 18 weeks of leave at full pay, while secondary caregivers are given the option to switch to a primary caregiver role after taking a three-week leave and receive an additional 15 weeks.

In Britain, the firm also implements a 24-week leave at full pay for primary caregivers. In addition, British law allows employees to get a further 15 weeks at £139.58 ($183) a week or 90 percent of an employee's average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. Primary caregivers can also share the leave with their partner; both parents are allowed to take up to 52 weeks in total, including 39 weeks of paid leave.

The offering of leave to both primary and secondary caregivers, and of leave-sharing that allows both parents to assume the role of primary caregiver, aims to encourage more men to take time to be with a new child, Phillips said. He noted that he fully recognises that the programme does not resolve gender inequity in the region but is "a step in the right direction", he said.

The new policy will apply to Herbert Smith Freehills' offices in Bangkok; Beijing; Hong Kong; Jakarta, Indonesia; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Seoul, South Korea; Shanghai; Singapore; and Tokyo.

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