There is a patchwork of return to work initiatives in the legal profession. Generally, smaller organizations tend to have less formalized return to work support. Returnity is intended to supplement organizations’ own return to work
initiatives via knowledge-sharing amongst participants from different organizations.
While many organizations have their own return to work initiatives, very few focus on the employee’s time at the beginning of or during their parental leave. This program is designed to address that gap via a peer support mechanism.
There are numerous parental support networks in Calgary, but none that are targeted towards lawyers. Practicing law generally comes with high and intense work expectations, and lawyers are in the unique position to understand and provide support to each other.
Supporting new parents as they return to work helps with talent retention and is good for business. They fill an important gap in the talent pipeline for the long-term success of your organization.
Supporting Returnity may help meet KPIs or commitments that your organization has made regarding diversity, equity and inclusion.
For private practices firms, this is a non-traditional opportunity for participating employees to create authentic relationship with in-house lawyers.
A 2021 American Bar Association report found that numerous women faced discrimination and lack of support in their organizations once they had children, which contributed to their leaving of their law firm and the profession. This program aims to provide more support to women to keep them in the profession.
Male lawyers who do take parental leave may feel even more isolated as there are very few male lawyers who take parental leave. Returnity is designed for any lawyer on parental leave, regardless of gender. Our hope is that male lawyers can also use this program to find peer support from other male lawyers.
According to a 2021 Canadian Bar Association report titled “Pay Equity in the Legal Profession”, encouraging and normalizing parental leave for male lawyers may help to remove gendered stigmas for all employees returning from parental leave.
The public is best served by a more representative and inclusive legal profession that reflects the diversity of the people it helps.
- Returnity YYC, Class of 2023 Member
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.