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LAW OFFICE MANAGEMENT The parental-leave pickle Lawyers who want to take time off to care for new babies face myriad issues — from lack of support from their firms to not being eligible for federal government benefits. B Y KE V IN MARR ON mid-sized Ottawa law firms, the young associate was amazed to dis- cover not only that most firms didn't have a policy but also that most female asso- ciates didn't know and were afraid to ask. Knapton, who was do- W ing the research in order to help her firm, Ottawa-based Williams McEnery, review its own policies, contacted 20 firms with between five and 25 lawyers and found that 12 of them handled maternity or pa- rental leave requests on an ad hoc basis, while the eight with policies had put these in place during the last year because an associate who was pregnant had pressured them to do so. "I was shocked at how little anyone seemed to know, includ- ing human resource people," says Knapton. The HR people would initially tell her they had policies, she says. But she would then ask for details, such as how long people get for maternity leave, how much money they receive, what flexibility there is, and what happens if someone gets ill. Then she would get answers such as "We're not sure," or "We didn't really plan for that." hen Juliet Knapton conducted an infor- mal survey recently on parental-leave policies in small to The complete absence of parental- leave policies, or the lack of clear and consistent parental-leave policies, is considered by many people as an affront to associates and an embarrassment to small to mid-sized law firms across the country. "It makes you wonder if they Society of British Columbia's equity om- budsperson and as chairwoman of the mentoring committee of the CBA wom- en lawyers forum, about the difficulties that women face because of inconsistent parental-leave policies. She says some firms have exceptionally good policies but, in others, longer parental leaves may only be granted to associates who can prove they are exceptionally valu- able to the firm. People are put in the position where they have to try to negotiate parental leave, rather than having a right to it, she says. "We're hearing from the women that every time a woman takes a leave or be- comes pregnant, it's as if it happens for the first time. It's sad but true," says Bonnie Warkentin, a partner at Wil- loughby MacLeod Warken- tin LLP in Kingston, Ont. and co-chairwoman of the Law Society of Upper Can- ada's retention of women in private practice working group. So what can be done about this sorry situation? First, it is important to know where babies come from," says former Canadian Bar Association presi- dent Eugene Meehan, a partner at Lang Michener LLP. In British Columbia, lawyer Anne Bhanu Chopra says she has received a lot of feedback, both in her role as the Law 16 JUNE 2008 www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com recognize that there are two distinct sets of issues with regards to parental leave. The first involves associates, who are employees and thus may have certain rights to leave under each province's em- ployment standards legislation (except in British Columbia and Newfoundland ILLUSTRATION: JOE WEISSMANN