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Duane Morris Offers Hours Reduction Around Parental Leave

By Danielle Nichole Smith
January 8, 2019
Law360

Duane Morris Offers Hours Reduction Around Parental Leave

By Danielle Nichole Smith
January 8, 2019
Law360

Read below

Duane Morris LLP attorneys in the U.S. will be able to reduce their billable hour expectations without a pay reduction in the period before and after taking parental leave as part of a new ramp down/ramp up policy, the firm announced Tuesday. ...

Thomas G. Servodidio, the vice chairman of the firm, told Law360 on Tuesday that the change came from the firm’s regular review of its leave policies and benefits to ensure that the firm was doing well in helping its lawyers plan for leaving and returning to work after becoming parents.

“We’re looking to be competitive and to really be family-friendly, so we regularly are looking at our family leave policies with that objective in mind,” Servodidio said. ...

Servodidio said the firm’s parental benefits were designed to think outside of the box and find ways to help associates and partners balance their work and family life.

Duane Morris' parental leave policy allows primary caregivers to take 16 weeks of paid parental leave[.] ...

"The profession is one in which client service is of such paramount concern, and understandably so — it's part of our ethical obligations as lawyers and it's the service nature of our business," Servodidio said. "But it can be stressful at times, so how can we come up with programs that will help ease those sorts of anxieties and help folks in balancing these various types of pressures, and that's some of the thinking that went behind what we try to do here to help."

To read the full article, visit Law360.com (subscription required).

For more information on Duane Morris’ Ramp Down/Ramp Up policy, read the press release.