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What’s the answer comrades?

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Rising Star
“She’s having a baby and will return.”
Listen to me A3. I have taken two maternity leaves during my time at biglaw. has my career suffered? maybe slightly. is it 10000% worth it? YES. If anything, having babies was my way out of the grind. not easy but definitely more meaningful. Have your babies and don't care what others think. You can always have a fabulous career but you can't always have babies.
If you want kids, who cares? Live your life. I took max parental leave 6 weeks after joining a new firm as a 7th year. No adverse effects.
Of course it’s not ok, but it is what it is. If partners have an adverse reaction to this, they were never going to be in your corner in any case. That is, the partners who won’t support an associate as a whole person all have one thing in common: a selfish expectation that they will receive complete fealty in exchange for a big salary. This attitude extends way beyond parental leave. It likely means these partners won’t lift you up as a partner candidate if it means potentially handing over matter management credit to someone else. It likely means they hoard origination credits and don’t play well with other partners. And so on. So any partner who can’t accept your need to be with a baby in the first weeks of life is not going to show up for you in other ways.
I’ve taken 2 full leaves (24 weeks) as a mid level then as a senior (my kids are 2 years apart). I came back from the last one in the middle of the pandemic without childcare. I think each time I returned, I was treated with more seniority and given more responsibility than I had before I went on leave. People were excited to have me available again and I got some great new cases thrown my way each time that were waiting for me to return. I’ve never heard anyone say anything negative about a male or female taking full leave at any level.
Greenberg Traurig
I think you know what the honest answer to this is.
I don't though...
I am not into PC bullshit or anything, and even from that perspective, I can assure you I have never heard anything negative about anyone on maternity leave. Not even the little digs or whatever might represent the “honest view.”
Mofo most likely
Good grief - who cares what a partner thinks. I would probably think something negative about someone who had a child and did not take leave.
Where I worked, partners encouraged me to take the max paternity leave. And I did. The first few months are so special. The bond you create in that time is amazing.
I think congrats for you but I’m not gonna lie some may wonder if you’re coming back. They’ll age out soon
I have a feeling it depends on how things go when you're on leave. Are you responsive and helpful to the people covering for you, or are you "ghosting" and giving partners the impression you couldn't care less about the projects you were staffed on?
I had a partner explain to me "how not to go on parental leave" based on some associates that supposedly did it wrong and left partners with bad impressions (and that was fathers not mothers, I'm sure it's worse for mothers)