Progressive Leave Policy Brings Peace of Mind to Unique Adoption Situation

Winston’s Childcare and Family Leave Guidelines are regularly updated to reflect law firm best practices. The firm offers generous family, childcare, and related benefits, including paid primary caregiver leave to same-sex spouses or domestic partners following the birth or adoption of a child.

“Winston’s policy to extend ‘maternity leave’ to adoptions and to same-sex couples made a profound difference to our family, and we are very grateful for it,” Washington, D.C. associate Alex Kaplan says. When Alex and his husband got the life-changing phone call that they had been chosen by a Florida couple to adopt their child, their immediate focus of course was not on figuring out their employers’ leave policies but on getting down there right away.

“At first we didn’t know for sure the adoption would go through, but I did manage to tell HR and the partners I work with. Everyone could not have been more thrilled and excited and shocked,” Alex recalls.

They adopted their daughter a week later, but it took three more weeks for the necessary clearances to return home to Washington, D.C. While unexpected, the delay gave Alex and his husband time to decompress and decide how to structure their leaves to best meet the needs of their family while balancing work obligations.

“In our case, it wasn’t obvious what we were going to do right away because we both work and one of us did not carry the child. But we were able to use Winston’s progressive caregiver leave policy as a backbone to help us plan and be able to be there for our child.”

Given the unique situation, Winston also was flexible in implementing the policy, enabling Alex to take part of his leave during his stay in Florida, return to work for eight weeks, and then take the remainder of his leave. “The firm approved without pause, making a remarkable time much easier from a work perspective.”