maternity leave in law firms

[hatsoff]

anyone know what's reasonable/standard paid maternity leave for an equity partner in a law firm in the Midlands?

Surely if you're equity you can take as much time off as you like?
Our (admittedly large city) firm lets fee-earners have
. ? 8 weeks at 100% pay
. ? 10 weeks at 50% pay
. ? 8 weeks at SMP

but I'm not sure that applies to the partners. Ask your personnel department.

it'a not a case of as much as you like - it's more a case of what you can negotiate with the other equity partners as your terms and conditions. I'm asking on behalf of a friend who's just become an equity partner and she needs to negotiate this as part of her terms - she's just not sure what would be reasonable - she's the only female equity partner of child-bearing age that they've had for about 10 years! So she doesn't know where to start really. If she takes the piss the other equity partners aren't going to be happy.

If she's starting from scratch I'd say go for 6 months on full pay as a starting point for negotiations.

But surely if she's equity she only takes drawings at the end of the year when profits are shared out. If she's contributed no profits then surely she gets nothing. It's like being self employed to a certain extent. I know a barrister who's got nothing for the year she's been off apart from SMP.

If she plays it right she could get a certain amount off the firm; I guess she'll just have to bargain with them to a certain extent.

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