Getting Pregnant In Law School/Maternity Leave and Articling After

[SubpoenaColada1]

Has anyone gotten pregnant while in 3L? I am in my late 30s and my husband and I would like to get pregnant while I'm in 3L. This would mean that I would take maternity leave summer 2025 and do my articles afterwards.

Has anyone had experience with this or knows anyone who is in the same life stage? 

[Mignonette]

Obvious disclaimer that this is a very personal experience and you may not get pregnant right away blah blah.  Further disclaimer that these are all anecdotal things that I have heard from other women based on their own experiences, that sound made up and shitty and illegal but that seem to be common experiences anyways.

From a purely practical standpoint I would agree with that timing.  I would rather get pregnant during law school, potentially give birth and take mat leave immediately before or after articling, and thus before becoming an associate.  Two considerations:

1. Consider your interviews, summering and career paths. Most women I know remove wedding and engagement rings during OCIs as they have been told that young women with rings are assumed to be at a mat-leave life stage and firms don't want to deal with that.  This sucks, but it is also something that I hear often from other women so it seems to be true.  Are you planing to do OCIs and are you able to conceal a pregnancy through that process?

2. Mat leave and top up from what I have heard is not a thing for lawyers.  I don't know anyone at a law firm who got a maternity leave top up from their firm, and I know many who were not welcomed back after mat leave, or who found that the environment that they came back to was hostile to motherhood.  For this reason I would prefer to have finished mat leave before joining a firm.  Otherwise, get a government job or a non-firm position.

 

I've put a lot thought into this because my male non-law partner would also like kids at some point.

You are worked hard during articling/first few years as an associate, which to me would not be compatible with a newborn.  For that reason, if I had a magic wand and perfect control of my fertility and body, I would get pregnant in December of my 3rd year, wear baggy sweaters through interview season if necessary, get an offer for an articling positing starting Aug 2025, take the bar in June 2025, give birth in July or Aug 25, defer my articling for a year, take a full year long mat leave, start baby in daycare in July 2026 and start articling in Aug 2026.  This allows for you to have done most of your interviews while not-pregnant.  It allows for you to have morning sickness and pregnancy symptoms during the 3LOL semester, when your grades and stress are lesser.  It lets you have a newborn in the summer, which is nice for meeting family outside and recovering with stroller walks in the sunshine (instead of flu season and dark lonely days inside with a winter 6 week old).

If this didn't work, I would consider getting pregnant to give birth at the end of my articling term and do some job searching in the second half of my mat leave.  

 

You didn't ask, but my plan B if I had fertility issues and/or desire for a second child: three years into associateship, I would apply to an LLM in England.  I hear that many firms will give you time off for an LLM and will pay for the school/a stipend while you study.  The year-long LLM programs in England are often not super rigorous from what I hear (or at least, less intense that being an associate), so I would "study as a mat leave".

[civicnoon]

1 hour ago, Mignonette said:

Obvious disclaimer that this is a very personal experience and you may not get pregnant right away blah blah.  Further disclaimer that these are all anecdotal things that I have heard from other women based on their own experiences, that sound made up and shitty and illegal but that seem to be common experiences anyways.

From a purely practical standpoint I would agree with that timing.  I would rather get pregnant during law school, potentially give birth and take mat leave immediately before or after articling, and thus before becoming an associate.  Two considerations:

1. Consider your interviews, summering and career paths. Most women I know remove wedding and engagement rings during OCIs as they have been told that young women with rings are assumed to be at a mat-leave life stage and firms don't want to deal with that.  This sucks, but it is also something that I hear often from other women so it seems to be true.  Are you planing to do OCIs and are you able to conceal a pregnancy through that process?

2. Mat leave and top up from what I have heard is not a thing for lawyers.  I don't know anyone at a law firm who got a maternity leave top up from their firm, and I know many who were not welcomed back after mat leave, or who found that the environment that they came back to was hostile to motherhood.  For this reason I would prefer to have finished mat leave before joining a firm.  Otherwise, get a government job or a non-firm position.

 

I've put a lot thought into this because my male non-law partner would also like kids at some point.

You are worked hard during articling/first few years as an associate, which to me would not be compatible with a newborn.  For that reason, if I had a magic wand and perfect control of my fertility and body, I would get pregnant in December of my 3rd year, wear baggy sweaters through interview season if necessary, get an offer for an articling positing starting Aug 2025, take the bar in June 2025, give birth in July or Aug 25, defer my articling for a year, take a full year long mat leave, start baby in daycare in July 2026 and start articling in Aug 2026.  This allows for you to have done most of your interviews while not-pregnant.  It allows for you to have morning sickness and pregnancy symptoms during the 3LOL semester, when your grades and stress are lesser.  It lets you have a newborn in the summer, which is nice for meeting family outside and recovering with stroller walks in the sunshine (instead of flu season and dark lonely days inside with a winter 6 week old).

If this didn't work, I would consider getting pregnant to give birth at the end of my articling term and do some job searching in the second half of my mat leave.  

 

You didn't ask, but my plan B if I had fertility issues and/or desire for a second child: three years into associateship, I would apply to an LLM in England.  I hear that many firms will give you time off for an LLM and will pay for the school/a stipend while you study.  The year-long LLM programs in England are often not super rigorous from what I hear (or at least, less intense that being an associate), so I would "study as a mat leave".

Are you referring to most/all firms? Or is this only the case for corporate/big law?

[Mignonette]

Of the women I have spoken to who have shared this with me, most have been big law, but some have been smaller firms.  This was open discussion about the state of the legal industry at a women's networking event.  Many women chimed in with the same experience.  This could be regional, I am in Ontario.  

[sandibay]

I think McCarthy offers mat leave top up. 

27 minutes ago, Mignonette said:

Of the women I have spoken to who have shared this with me, most have been big law, but some have been smaller firms.  This was open discussion about the state of the legal industry at a women's networking event.  Many women chimed in with the same experience.  This could be regional, I am in Ontario.  

I think McCarthy offers mat leave top up.

[Pantalaimon]

My firm offers generous top-up for both parents - I'm currently taking a leave as a dad. I'm actually surprised to hear there are big law firms that don't. Financially, it would probably be better to wait until you're an associate, but that's pushing it quite a few years down the road. Stress and lifestyle wise, I agree that 3L is probably the best time to have a newborn.

As an aside, I'm not an employment lawyer, but is deferring articling really a "mat leave"? I'm not sure firms would be legally required to defer your articling, as you don't have an employment relationship with the firm between the time you're done summer and when you start articling. That said, I'd hope that most firms would accommodate. Wouldn't there also be a potential issue applying for EI? Don't you have to be working when you apply?

[BlockedQuebecois]

I don't know the situation across the entire street, but every big law firm I am aware of offers a fairly generous maternity leave top-up. There is a real disparity between firms with respect to paternity leave, and the difficulties of returning to practice at those firms shouldn't be discounted (even if most firms are trying to make things easier for women who take maternity leave).

But I don't think any of them do not provide any maternity leave whatsoever. 

[JohnnyCochrane68]

Easiest time is school or articling, can be more challenging in practice to hand stuff off

 

Quote

2. Mat leave and top up from what I have heard is not a thing for lawyers.  I don't know anyone at a law firm who got a maternity leave top up from their firm, and I know many who were not welcomed back after mat leave, or who found that the environment that they came back to was hostile to motherhood.  For this reason I would prefer to have finished mat leave before joining a firm.  Otherwise, get a government job or a non-firm position.

Just wrong

[canuckfanatic]

I haven't heard of a firm NOT providing mat leave/top up. The firms I'm aware of offer at least something, even if it may be inadequate. Most of them offer some sort of "non-birthing parental leave" as well (usually significantly less time).

My articling firm in the suburbs offered 3 months mat leave top up, the BigLaw firm I went to offered 4 months.

Edited January 10 by canuckfanatic

[Pantalaimon]

The top-ups in big law are much more generous than my friends in any other industry. It may be inadequate, but it's a lot better than you'll get in, say, engineering, computer science, or the Alberta public service.

[canuckfanatic]

42 minutes ago, Pantalaimon said:

The top-ups in big law are much more generous than my friends in any other industry. It may be inadequate, but it's a lot better than you'll get in, say, engineering, computer science, or the Alberta public service.

My friends in BC government jobs have excellent mat leave benefits. That tends to be the standard I compare against. Of course, government departments can vary.

[Dinsdale]

BigLaw absolutely offers top-up and generous maternity leave benefits to associates.  I am not sure who told you they don't, but that is incorrect.  Now, whether one or more mat leaves will negatively impact one's path to partnership, who knows?  Firms will say it will not, but there are likely women with anecdotal evidence suggesting otherwise.