How I Match Lawyers Prepping for a Family With Firms That Deliver on Flexibility

By Joe Bryant - Regional Director

Family planning comes up in more of my conversations with candidates than people probably realise. It's rarely the headline reason someone calls me, but it's very often sitting underneath the real question: is this firm actually going to support me if I have a child in the next few years, or is its parental leave policy just words on an intranet page?

That question has got more pointed lately. From 6 April 2026, paternity leave and unpaid parental leave both became day-one rights under the Employment Rights Act 2025, no more waiting six months or a year to qualify. It's a small legal change, but it's pushed a lot of firms, and a lot of candidates, to actually think about what their parental offering looks like, rather than assume it's fine.

This is a sensitive topic, for firms and for candidates, so I want to be careful about how I write this. I'm not pretending there's a single right answer but after enough of these conversations, some patterns are worth setting out plainly.

Which Firms Are Leading the Market on Parental Pay?

The firms I see offering meaningfully enhanced maternity and paternity pay tend to skew toward the larger international firms. That's not a coincidence: enhanced parental leave is expensive to fund properly, and it's the firms with the financial depth and HR infrastructure to cover someone properly for six months or more who tend to lead here.

Two examples worth knowing: Bird & Bird now offers 26 weeks of fully paid leave to all new parents, regardless of gender, after a year's service. Lewis Silkin's policy goes further on paper, up to 52 weeks of leave with 26 weeks at full pay, plus an extra 12 weeks fully paid if a baby needs neonatal care, also gender-neutral, also after a year's service. Both are useful benchmarks for what ‘good’ looks like at the more generous end of the market right now.

That said, policy varies hugely across the sector, by firm size, structure and how recently it's been reviewed. RollOnFriday's benefits database is a good place to compare firms side by side on parental leave, alongside things like billable hours targets and flexible working, if you want to look beyond what I can cover here.

Sources: Law Society Gazette on Bird & Bird's policy, announced April 2026; Lewis Silkin's own policy announcement, March 2024; RollOnFriday's Inside Info benefits database.

Where Firms Get This Wrong, and Where It's Hard to Say

I'll be honest, it's difficult to say definitively when a firm has got this wrong. If a firm sticks to statutory maternity and paternity pay, you could argue that sends a signal: they'll do the legal minimum and nothing more. But you also have to respect that there's a real business cost involved, and firms weigh that differently. There's a balance between statutory and enhanced provision, and every firm draws that line in a different place. That's not automatically a red flag.

What tells me more than the policy document is how a candidate feels about raising the topic with their employer at all. If someone feels able to ask about parental leave, or mention family planning, without worrying it'll count against them, that's usually a good sign about the wider culture. If they're nervous even bringing it up, that tells me something too, regardless of what the policy says on paper.

Part of the problem is that there's a real awkwardness around this topic on both sides. Nobody wants to say the wrong thing, candidates included, because it can feel like it puts them at a disadvantage before they've even started. I've also had firms decline to disclose their maternity and paternity leave policy before making an offer, because it's not something they want candidates comparing or discussing openly. That refusal is itself a data point worth noticing.

How to Weigh Up a Good Offer

If a firm offers meaningfully enhanced maternity and paternity pay, and family planning is somewhere on your horizon, even a few years out, that's a real factor to weigh alongside salary and practice area, not an afterthought. A handful of things are worth checking specifically, rather than taking the headline figure at face value:

• How long is the full-pay period, and what happens after it, does it drop straight to statutory, or taper down?
• Is the policy gender-neutral, or does it split unevenly between the parent giving birth and their partner?
• Is there a service requirement before you qualify for the enhanced rate, and how does that interact with your notice period if you're moving firms?
• Is shared parental leave properly supported and paid at the enhanced rate, or only nominally offered?
• What does the firm actually do to support a phased return, reduced targets, no penalty on billable hours immediately after leave, that kind of thing?

None of this needs to be a deal-breaker on its own, but taken together, it tells you a lot more than the headline weeks-and-percentage figure does.

The Golden Handcuffs

This is the part people researching a move often don't think about early enough: training cost repayment clauses. If your firm funded your training contract, SQE or LPC, many contracts include a clause requiring you to repay some or all of that cost if you leave within a set period.

UK law puts real limits on how these clauses can work. To be enforceable, they generally need to reflect the employer's actual cost rather than punish you for leaving, and they're usually structured as a sliding scale, for example, full repayment if you leave within six months, tapering to nothing by around eighteen months to two years. A clause that's disproportionate to the actual cost, or that effectively stops you working elsewhere, risks being unenforceable. And a firm cannot lawfully use one of these clauses to disadvantage you because of pregnancy or maternity specifically.

That doesn't mean you should ignore the clause. I've seen candidates caught out badly because they didn't read the terms and conditions closely before signing. Know exactly what you're agreeing to before you commit. It shouldn't put you off looking elsewhere if the right role comes along, some firms will cover that repayment cost themselves to bring you on board. It's a handcuff worth being aware of, but not something you can't work around, as long as it's disclosed and you go in with your eyes open.

This is general information, not legal advice. If you're unsure about a specific clause in your contract, it's worth getting it checked by a solicitor or your union before you sign.

Does This Change With Seniority?

People often ask whether this is different depending on PQE, and in my experience, it shouldn't be, and largely isn't. What actually seems to matter more is length of service, and how that gets perceived.

If someone joins a firm and goes on maternity or paternity leave within six months, that's not always perceived positively, whatever the firm officially says. If someone has been at a firm for five or six years before starting a family, it's a different story, they've built up more trust and history with the business. That's not my opinion of what's fair, it's just the perception I see play out again and again.

I want to be clear about that distinction: it's a bias in how it's perceived, not a fair reflection of anyone's commitment or ability. A shorter tenure before taking leave doesn't make someone a worse hire or a less serious solicitor, but candidates should know this perception exists so they can make an informed decision about timing, rather than be caught out by it.

How Firms Could Handle These Conversations Better

If I could change one thing about how this topic gets handled across the market, it's this: be upfront. Firms that are transparent about their parental leave policy before an offer is made, rather than treating it as something to withhold, set the tone for a much healthier conversation later. Candidates shouldn't feel obligated to disclose family planning intentions, and firms shouldn't ask, but making the policy itself easy to find and discuss removes a lot of the unnecessary awkwardness on both sides.

The other half of it is culture matching policy. A generous policy on paper doesn't mean much if people who use it come back to find their trajectory has stalled without explanation. The firms that get real credit from candidates I speak to are the ones where returning from leave doesn't come with a reset button.

None of this needs to be complicated. Look past the headline policy to how it's actually applied, ask what happens after someone returns, and read the fine print on anything tied to your training costs. If you're weighing up a move and family planning is part of that decision, I'd rather have that conversation with you directly than have you guess.

If you're thinking about a move and want to talk through any of this, in confidence, get in touch. It's a conversation I have often, and there's no need to have all the answers before we start.

Questions I Get Asked

Do law firms have to offer more than statutory maternity and paternity pay?

No. Statutory pay is a legal floor, not a ceiling, firms can choose whether to enhance it, and by how much. Statutory maternity pay currently runs at 90% of average weekly earnings for the first six weeks, then the lower of £194.32 a week or 90% of earnings for up to 39 weeks; statutory paternity pay is £194.32 a week or 90% of earnings, whichever is lower, for up to two weeks. Everything above that is down to the individual firm.

What changed with paternity leave in April 2026?

From 6 April 2026, paternity leave and unpaid parental leave both became day-one rights under the Employment Rights Act 2025, removing the previous 26-week and one-year service requirements. Statutory paternity pay still requires 26 weeks' service, so the right to take leave and the right to be paid for it aren't quite the same thing yet.

Can a firm claw back my training contract or SQE costs if I leave?

Often, yes, if it's in your contract, but the clause has to be proportionate to the firm's actual cost, usually on a sliding scale that reduces the longer you stay, and it can't lawfully be used to disadvantage you because of pregnancy or maternity. Read the terms closely before you sign anything.

Does taking parental leave early in a new role affect how I'm seen?

It can, unfairly. In my experience it's less about PQE and more about length of service, someone who's been at a firm five or six years before taking leave is often perceived differently to someone who joins and takes leave within six months. That's a bias in how it's perceived, not a reflection of someone's ability or commitment, but it's worth knowing about so you can plan around it if timing matters to you.

Which law firms have the best parental leave policies right now?

It changes as firms review their policies, but Bird & Bird (26 weeks fully paid, gender-neutral) and Lewis Silkin (up to 52 weeks with 26 at full pay, plus extra for neonatal care) are both strong current examples. RollOnFriday's benefits database is worth checking for a wider, up-to-date comparison across the market.

Related Reading

Leaving  a Magic Circle Law Firm

Remote Working at London's Top Law Firms

The Merger Wave

Family planning shouldn't be a conversation you have to have alone. If you're weighing up a move and want an honest, confidential read on how a firm actually handles this, get in touch with me at JMC Legal.