How more male lawyers taking parental leave is reshaping law

This article was originally published by Angela Tufvesson for LSJ Online (21 January 2025).

Generous policies are encouraging more male lawyers to take parental leave – and for longer stretches of time. This shift not only supports gender equality but helps firms attract and retain top talent.

The birth of Tristan Appleby’s son, George, almost two years ago marked the beginning of six weeks of full-time parental leave for the Clayton Utz special counsel. Then, when George was seven months old, Appleby went on parental leave again, this time for six months.

It was thanks to the firm’s parental leave policy – which was revised in 2022 to offer 26 weeks at full salary including superannuation for all new parents, to be taken over two years – and a top-up courtesy of accrued annual leave.

“This pattern of leave worked best for our family – for me to take the second shift after my wife went back to work,” Appleby says. “Being available and present for that time was really lovely. That’s the age he was getting interactive with smiles and laughs.”

Appleby also took parental leave after his now five-year-old daughter, Claire, was born, but says the three-week policy that was in place at the time wasn’t as beneficial. “The old distinction between primary and secondary carers meant I didn’t get the opportunity to be a primary carer for my daughter, whereas with my son I had that time at home with him to be the person taking on that primary responsibility,” he says.

Initially, Appleby admits he was concerned that taking six months away from the workplace would negatively impact his career and impede his ability to apply for special counsel, but says he was supported to take the leave and progress his application. He was promoted several months after his return to work.

“Whether taking that time interrupted my career, I don’t really think that it did,” Appleby says. “I found people were generally very respectful of the fact that I was taking that time off.”

A rising number of law firms now offer generous paid parental leave schemes, helping them attract and retain talent and respond to the increasing push for greater gender equality in the workplace. Crucially, there has been a noticeable increase in male lawyers not only taking parental leave but extending the duration of their time away from work, fulfilling their roles as fathers and normalising parental leave as a shared responsibility.

Flexible parental leave for all

Amy Lennox, people and development director at Clayton Utz, says the firm designed its parental leave policy to be “as accessible and flexible to all employees as possible”.

“In today’s society, the way people live and raise their families is changing, and our old parental leave policies probably weren’t keeping pace with the way our people are changing. Treating our people equally is really helping us from a cultural point of view,” she says.

“For men who in the past have potentially never had the opportunity to spend time with their families, it allows them to do that. For women who may have felt their career might be impacted because they’re the only one taking parental leave, it feels like a much fairer playing ground when you have both genders taking parental leave.”

Lennox says men at the firm have “always taken parental leave” since it was first offered, but what’s changing since the introduction of the updated policy is how long they’re taking and the patterns of uptake.

“Our females are still typically taking it in one block at the start, whereas some of our men are taking it quite differently,” she says. “Most of them will take a few weeks at the start. Then they might come back and take five months at a later time. Or they might do a day a week or they might do it in several blocks over the period.”

Equal contribution to parenting

It’s a pattern mirrored at Baker McKenzie, which also offers 26 weeks of paid parental leave over a two-year period for all new parents. Senior associate Liam O’Callaghan took parental leave with each of his daughters, Ariana and Elena, and says a block of full-time leave immediately after the birth followed by one day of leave a week best suited his family.

“My eldest was quite a colicky baby in the early days and there was a lot of sleepless nights, so I ended up taking Wednesdays off each week. It was really, really valuable,” he says. “With my second, I was a little more prepared. When she was born in March last year I took 10 weeks, and then I’ve been taking Tuesdays off since then so I could be around with both the girls.”

O’Callaghan says he’s “loved being around them during such an intense time”. “You wait a week and they’re a completely different kid in that early stage. We’d seen three iterations of their sleep and development by the time I came back to work.”

Gareth Austin, also a senior associate at Baker McKenzie, took a couple of weeks of parental leave before his daughter, Gwen, was born, seven or so weeks after the birth, and the remainder of the time after his wife returned to work. He again took seven weeks after the birth of his son, Heath, last April, and is currently on parental leave until May.

“Every cliche under the sun is turns out to be true in relation to being a parent,” he says. “They don’t stay this age forever. Every new stage obviously has its challenges, but it’s just a lot of fun, and it is a critical time to spend with your children.”

He says it’s crucial for both parents to contribute equally to child rearing from the get-go. “It’s so important for especially dads to take the leave and organise the calendars, do the medical appointments and share the mental load as equitably as possible.”

Attracting and retaining talent

It’s widely acknowledged that supporting men to take up parental leave benefits women’s workforce participation and a more equal distribution of family responsibilities. International evidence also suggests that fathers who are more involved with their children experience higher life satisfaction, and their children benefit from better developmental outcomes. In the workplace, parental leave helps employers attract and retain talent and fosters better morale and productivity.

Justine Anderson, the immediate past president of the Women Lawyers Association of NSW, notes that it’s difficult to determine exactly how many law firms offer generous paid parental leave schemes and the patterns of uptake as the policies are not often publicly available. However, she says parental leave is becoming an increasingly important factor for prospective employees of a firm.

“Anecdotally, there have been increases, particularly when it’s an employee driven market, in employees becoming more vocal about wanting to know what parental leave policies or flexible work policies exist within the firm before they move roles,” she says. “With changing attitudes to work and the profession becoming increasingly female dominated, firms are taking steps to update these policies.”

In 2022, Bartier Perry removed definitions of primary and secondary carer from its parental leave policy. The firm now offers 20 weeks of parental leave for all parents at full pay inclusive of superannuation. As with other firms, the leave can be taken at any point after the birth of a child within the first two years.

CEO Riana Steyn says more men are taking extended time off when they become fathers compared to in the past, when two weeks’ parental leave was standard. “The feedback about the parental leave policy has been overwhelmingly positive and is seen as a standout benefit across the firm,” she says. “It is recognised by staff as being extremely favourable compared to many of our industry competitors and is a strong selling point when promoting Bartier Perry to prospective new employees.”

Normalising parental leave in practice

Georgie Dent, CEO at advocacy organisation The Parenthood and a former lawyer, says an effective parental leave policy is gender neutral with no distinction between primary and secondary carers. So-called ‘use-it-of-lose-it’ provisions – when there is a financial penalty if both parents don’t take leave – can also encourage parents to share the care of a new baby.

Another key factor is the rate of pay. “When you’ve got a paid parental leave scheme that’s paid at the minimum wage, you’re significantly less likely to have men taking that up,” she says. “It reflects the gender pay gap and the fact that because men tend to be higher income earners, they’re less likely to take a step back from paid work if the financial penalty is quite significant. When it’s closer to a replacement wage rate, more men take it.”

Dent says “having an enabling cultural environment” in the workplace that encourages and normalises uptake of parental leave is critical. “A lot of law firms have had quite good paid parental leave schemes in place that men were technically able to access for a long time, but what has held them back is that using the policy has been looked down on,” she says.

“The big cultural shift that we’re looking for is, yes, the policy is there, but if I take it, what happens to my career? What are my prospects? If using a particular policy is seen to limit your progression, that is when you would have an amazing policy sitting on the shelf not being used.”

O’Callaghan says he’s one of three dads in his team, all of whom have taken parental leave. For Austin, taking parental leave was “almost a given”. “I put in my dates, and everyone was like, why wouldn’t you take the full whack? There were no issues whatsoever, and quite a lot of support from the team,” he says.

Newly minted Bartier Perry partner, Mario Rashid-Ring, says he “felt very supported” to take parental leave after his daughter – Siya, who’s now seven months old – was born. He took six weeks of parental leave after the birth and will take the remainder of the time in the coming months after his wife returns to work.

“I had a conversation with my practice head and one of my mentors about it – they’re both fathers and they perhaps didn’t have the same sort of flexibility that I had or the same opportunity,” Rashid-Ring says.

“They were both very clear and said, ‘This is a unique opportunity that you have to spend time with your wife and daughter. You can’t be afraid to ask for what you need, and you can’t feel guilty about taking that time for yourself and your family because you’ll never get the chance again.’”

After returning from his first tranche of parental leave, he says three or four other young dads have asked about his experience and whether parental leave has impacted his career. “Being able to take that time has helped me encourage other people to do it as well and demonstrated that the firm supports it and encourages it,” Rashid-Ring says.

Ahead of the curve

Among Australian employers, 68 per cent offer access to paid parental leave, either to both women and men or to women only, according to 2023–24 data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA). These provisions are in addition to the government scheme, which offers 22 weeks at the minimum wage increasing to 26 weeks in 2026. Just two weeks of government paid parental leave are currently set aside for partners, so it’s perhaps no surprise that only 17 per cent of parental leave is taken by Australian men.

Many lawyers are ineligible for the government scheme due to incomes that exceed the limits, but these policy settings – which lag considerably behind Australia’s OECD counterparts – continue to influence the broader social context in which firms operate.

“Because our policy settings are still entrenching men as breadwinners and women as caregivers, that remains the cultural expectation and community expectation, which reinforces these quite rigid gender stereotypes,” Dent says.

Encouragingly, law, and professional services more broadly, “tend to be ahead of government when it comes to policy”, explains Jane Hill, chair of The 100% Project, which is working to achieve 100 per cent gender balance in Australian leadership, and people and culture director at Lion Australia.

“What we found in our research is that many companies now are offering extended parental leave to both parents, and dads are more likely now to take longer than they would have very recently,” she says. “Just three or four years ago, even if it was offered, men were really quite uncomfortable taking extended leave because they felt that their career commitment was going to be questioned.”

To support a smooth return to work after parental leave, some firms have implemented policies for practice care taking – where another practitioner takes over during a period of parental leave – and budget relief.

“When you’re on parental leave, there are no billable hour expectations. If you take it in a bigger gap, we provide fee relief, so when you come back there is a period where you don’t have to work,” says Lennox of Clayton Utz’s policy. Similarly, Baker McKenzie offers three months of budget relief.

Anderson says some firms are also applying these principles to promotion cycles. “If a person has met their budget in a year, but they happen to be on parental leave at the time that the promotion cycles occur, they shouldn’t be overlooked for a promotion, even if they haven’t applied due to being on parental leave,” she says.

“Those staff should be approached as eligible for promotion and invited to apply. It is incumbent on firms to equitably apply their promotion policies regardless of whether a person is on parental leave.”

Looking ahead, Anderson says the profession needs to continue encouraging men to use parental leave policies. “There’s still a lot of social stigma that may exist, but these are policies for everyone,” she says.

“As a profession, we need to continue to challenge gender roles, and we need to lead by example by showing that equal participation in the home doesn’t hurt your career prospects.”